Audio Scripts Guide to Listening

UDIO

CRIPT

[CD 1 Track 1]

Narrator:

Welcome to the Audio Program for the Complete

Guide to the TOEFL Test: iBT Edition, by Bruce Rogers.
Published by Thomson ELT, Boston, Massachusetts. All
rights reserved.

[CD 1 Track 2]

Section 2: Guide to Listening

Preview Test

Listen as the directions are read to you.
Narrator:

Directions: This section tests your understanding

of conversations and lectures. You will hear each conversa-
tion or lecture only once. Your answers should be based on
what is stated or implied in the conversations and lectures.
You are allowed to take notes as you listen, and you can use
these notes to help you answer the questions. In some
questions, you will see a headphones icon. This icon tells
you that you will hear, but not read, part of the lecture
again. Then you will answer a question about the part of
the lecture that you heard. Some questions have special
directions that are highlighted. During an actual test, you
may not skip questions and come back to them later, so try
to answer every question that you hear on this test. On an
actual test, there are two conversations and four lectures.
You will have twenty minutes (not counting the time spent
listening) in which to complete this section of the test. On
this Preview Test, there is one conversation and three lec-
tures. Most questions are separated by a ten-second pause.

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

professor.

Student:

Professor Dixon? I’m Brenda Pierce. From your

Geology 210 class . . . ?

Professor: Yes. I know. That’s a big class, but I do recognize

you. As a matter of fact, I noticed you weren’t in class yester-
day morning. Did you oversleep? That’s one of the problems
with an 8:00 class. I almost overslept myself a couple of times.

Student:

Oh, uh, no, I didn’t oversleep. In fact, I was up at

5:00—one of my roommates had an early flight and I took
her to the airport. I thought I’d make it back here in time,
but, uh, well, you know . . . you know how traffic can be out
on Airport Road at that time of day. Anyway, uh, I know you
were going to tell us . . . give us some information about
our research paper in class today. Do you have a few min-
utes to fill me in?

Professor:

Well, umm, a few minutes, I guess. This isn’t my

regular office hour. I actually just came by my office to pick
up a few papers before the faculty meeting.

Student:

Okay, well . . . about the research paper . . . how

long does it have to be?

Professor:

Well, as I told the class, the paper counts for 30%

of your grade. It should be at least twelve pages, but no
more than twenty-five. And your bibliography should con-
tain at least ten reference sources.

Student:

Will you be assigning the topic, or . . .

Professor:

I’m leaving the choice of topic up to you. Of

course, it should be related to something we’ve discussed
in class.

Student:

I, I’m interested in writing about earthquakes . . .

Professor:

Hmm. Earthquakes . . . well, I don’t know, Brenda

. . . that sounds like much too broad a topic for a short
research paper.

Student:

Oh, well, I’m planning to choose . . . I plan to get

more specific than that. I want to write about using ani-
mals to predict earthquakes.

Professor:

Really? Well, once scientists wondered if maybe

. . . if perhaps there was some connection between strange
behavior in animals and earthquakes . . . and that maybe
animals . . . that you could use them to predict earth-
quakes. But there have been a lot of studies on this subject,
you know, and so far, none of them have shown anything
promising . . .

Student:

But I thought there was this . . . I saw this show on

television about earthquakes, and it said that in, uh, China,
I think it was, they did predict an earthquake because of
the way animals were acting.

Professor:

Oh, right—you’re thinking of the Haecheng

earthquake about thirty years ago. Well, that’s true. There
were snakes coming out of the ground in the middle of
winter when they should have been hibernating . . . and
supposedly horses and other animals were acting fright-
ened. And there were other signs, too, not just from ani-
mals. So the government ordered an evacuation of the area,
and in fact, there was an earthquake, so thousands of lives
were probably saved.

Student:

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking of . . . that’s what I

saw on television.

Professor:

The problem is that, unfortunately, no one’s

been able to duplicate that kind of result . . . in China or
anywhere else. There have been lots of earthquakes since
then that haven’t been predicted, and there have been a
couple of false alarms when cities were evacuated for no
reason . . . and like I said, none of the studies that have
been done have shown that animals are any better at pre-
dicting earthquakes than people are.

Student:

So that’s . . . so you don’t think that’s a very good

idea for a topic, then, I suppose . . .

Professor:

I didn’t say that . . . just because this theory

hasn’t been proven doesn’t mean you couldn’t write a per-
fectly good paper about this topic . . . on the notion that
animals can predict earthquakes. Why not? It could be
pretty interesting. But to do a good job, you . . . you’ll need
to look at some serious studies in the scientific journals,
not just some pop-science articles in newspapers, or . . .
and you can’t get your information from television shows.

Student:

You really think it might make a good paper? Well,

then, I think if I can get enough information from the
library or the Internet . . .

Professor:

Okay, why don’t you see what you can find? Oh, I

forgot to mention . . . you’ll need to write up a formal pro-
posal for your paper, and work up a preliminary bibliogra-
phy, and hand it in to me a week from tomorrow. I’ll need
to approve it before you get started. Now, if you’ll excuse
me, Brenda, I’ve got to get to that faculty meeting.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What is this conversation mainly

about?

Narrator:

Question 2: Listen again to part of the conversa-

tion. Then answer the question.

Student:

Professor Dixon? I’m Brenda Pierce. From your

Geology 210 class . . . ?

Narrator:

What can be inferred about the student?

Narrator:

Question 3: What assumption does the professor

make about the student?

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 1

Narrator:

Question 4: How did the student first get informa-

tion about the topic she wants to write about?

Narrator:

Question 5: What is the professor’s attitude

toward the topic that the student wants to write about?

Narrator:

Now listen to a lecture in a biology class.

Professor:

Okay, everyone . . . if you remember, on

Wednesday we talked about the general concept of biomes.
So, just to review, biomes are large zones, big sections of
the planet that have similar conditions and have the same
kinds of plants and animals. Last class, we talked about the
tundra, remember? This is a strip of land in the far, far
north. We said the tundra consists mainly of open, marshy
planes with no trees, just some low shrubs.

So, okay, today, we’re going to continue our tour of the

world’s biomes. The next biome you come to, as you head
south from the tundra, is the taiga. That’s spelled t-a-i-g-a,
taiga. It’s also called the “boreal forest.” The taiga is the
largest of all the world’s biomes. About 25% of all the
world’s forests are found in the taiga.

Now, the word taiga means “marshy evergreen forest.” It

comes from the Russian language, and that’s not too sur-
prising, really, because there are huge, I mean, really enor-
mous stretches of taiga in Russia. But taiga isn’t just found
in Russia. Like the tundra, the taiga is a more-or-less con-
tinuous belt that circles the North Pole, running through
Russia, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska. Most of this land
was—well, it used to be covered by glaciers, and these gla-
ciers left deep gouges and depressions in the land. And not
surprisingly, these filled up with water—with melted
snow—so you have lots of lakes and ponds and marshes in
the taiga.

Within the taiga itself, you’ll find three sub-zones. The

first of these you come to, as you’re going south, is called
open forest. The only trees here are needle-leaf trees—you
know, evergreen trees, what we call coniferous trees. These
trees tend to be small and far apart. This is basically tun-
dra—it looks like tundra, but with a few small trees. Next,
you come to what’s called closed forest, with bigger needle-
leaf trees growing closer together. This feels more like a real
forest. This sub-zone—well, if you like variety, you’re not
going to feel happy here. You can travel for miles and see
only half a dozen species of trees. In a few days, we’ll be
talking about the tropical rain forest; now, that’s where
you’ll see variety. Okay, finally, you come to the mixed zone.
The trees are bigger still here, and you’ll start seeing some
broad-leafed trees, deciduous trees. You’ll see larch, aspen,
especially along rivers and creeks, in addition to needle-
leaf trees. So this sub-zone feels a bit more like the temper-
ate forests we’re used to.

So, what are conditions like in the taiga? Well, to start

with, you’ve gotta understand that it’s cold there. I mean,
very cold. Summers are short, winters long. So the organ-
isms that call the taiga home have to be well adapted to
cold. The trees in the taiga, as I already said, are coniferous
trees like the pine, fir, and spruce. And these trees, they’ve
adapted to cold weather. How? Well, for one thing, they
never lose their leaves—they’re “evergreen,” right, always
green, so in the spring, they don’t have to waste time—
don’t have to waste energy—growing new leaves. They’re
ready to start photosynthesizing right away. And then, for
another thing, these trees are conical—shaped like cones—
aren’t they? This means that snow doesn’t accumulate too
much on the branches; it just slides off, and so, well, that
means their branches don’t break under the weight of the
snow. And even their color—that dark, dark green—it’s use-
ful because it absorbs the sun’s heat.

What about the animals that live up there? You remem-

ber I said there were lots of marshes and lakes. These
watery places make wonderful breeding grounds for
insects. So naturally, in the summer, you get lots of insects.
And insects attract birds, right? Plenty of birds migrate to
the taiga in the summer to, uh, to feast on insects. Lots of
the mammals that live in the taiga migrate to warmer cli-
mates once cold weather sets in. But there are some year-
round residents. Among the predators—the animals that
hunt other animals—there are Arctic foxes, wolves, bears,
martens, oh, and ermines. There’s one thing all these pred-
ators have in common, the ones that live there all year
round . . . they all have thick, warm fur coats, don’t they?
This heavy fur keeps them toasty in the winter. Of course,
on the downside, it makes them desirable to hunters and
trappers. Some of these predators survive the winter by
hibernating, by sleeping right through it . . . bears, for
example. And some change colors. You’ve heard of the
ermine, right? In the summer, the ermine is dark brown,
but in the winter, it turns white. That makes it hard to spot,
so it can sneak up on its prey.

Then, uh, what sorts of herbivores live up there? What

do the predators eat to stay alive? There’s the moose, of
course, but only young moose are at risk of being attacked.
The adult moose is the biggest, strongest animal found in
the taiga, so a predator would have to be feeling pretty des-
perate to take on one of these. Mostly, predators hunt
smaller prey, like snowshoe rabbits, voles, lemmings . . .

Okay, the next biome we come to is the temperate for-

est, where broadleaf trees like, oh, maples and oaks are
most common, but before we get to this, I’d like to give you
an opportunity to ask me some questions about the taiga.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 6: What does the professor say about

the word taiga?

Narrator:

Question 7: Why does the speaker say this:

Professor:

This sub-zone—well, if you like variety, you’re

not going to feel happy here. You can travel for miles and
see only half a dozen species of trees. In a few days, we’ll be
talking about the tropical rain forest; now, that’s where
you’ll see variety.

Narrator:

Question 8: The professor discussed three sub-

zones of the taiga. Match each sub-zone with its
characteristic.

Narrator:

Question 9: When discussing needle-leaf trees,

which of these adaptations to cold weather does the pro-
fessor mention?

Narrator:

Question 10: What characteristic do all of the

predators of the taiga have in common?

Narrator:

Question 11: What does the professor imply

about moose?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in the first class of a busi-

ness course.

Professor:

Well, I guess everyone’s here, huh? We may as

well get started. Good morning, all. I’m Professor Robert
Speed and I’d like you . . . I’d like to welcome you to the
Foundations of Business class. The purpose of this class is
really to acquaint you with the tools, the various tools,
techniques you’ll be using in most of your business
courses. And we’ll concentrate especially on the case study
method, because you’ll be using that in almost . . . well, in
most of the business classes you take.

Student A:

The . . . case study method, Professor? Is that a

new method of teaching business?

2 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 2

Professor:

Oh, no, no, no. I mean . . . it may seem new to

you, but, no, in fact, a professor named Christopher
Longdell introduced this system at Harvard University back
. . . around the 1870’s. And he always insisted that it was
based on a system used by Chinese philosophers thou-
sands of years ago.

Student B:

So then, they’ve . . . it’s been used in business

schools ever since the . . . when did you say, the 1870’s?

Professor:

Well, you see, Professor Longdell, he . . . he in

fact taught in the law school at Harvard, not in the business
school. So the case method first . . . it was first used to train
law students. Then, a couple of years after that, they started
using it at Columbia University, at the law school there. It
wasn’t until . . . When was it? Uh, probably about 1910,
1912, something like that, that it was used . . . first used at
Harvard Business School.

Student B:

Then, it’s used in other fields? Besides law and

business?

Professor:

Oh sure, over the years, it’s been used in all sorts

of disciplines. For example, my wife . . . she teaches over at
the School of Education . . . she uses cases to train teachers.

Student A:

Professor Speed, I get that case study has been

around awhile, but I still don’t quite understand why we’re
. . . well, why do we study cases, exactly?

Professor:

Okay, before the case method was introduced,

the study of law and business was very . . . abstract . . . the-
oretical. It was just, just lectures about theory. Professor
Longdell thought—and a lot of educators think—that really,
the best way to learn law, business, any discipline you can
think of, is by studying actual situations and analyzing
these situations . . . and learning to make decisions.

Student A:

That makes sense, but . . . I mean, what does a

case look like, exactly . . . I mean, what does it . . . ?

Professor:

What does a case look like? Well, cases are basi-

cally descriptions of actual—let me stress that—of real
business situations, chunks of reality from the business
world. So, you get typically ten to twenty pages of text that
describe the problem, some problem that a real business
actually faced. And then there will be another five to ten
pages of what are called exhibits.

Student B:

Exhibits? What are those?

Professor:

Exhibits . . . those are documents, statistical doc-

uments, that explain the situation. They might be oh,
spreadsheets, sales reports, umm, marketing projections,
anything like that. But as I said, at the center of every case,
at the core of every case, is a problem that you have to
solve. So, you have to analyze the situation, the data—and
sometimes, you’ll see you don’t have enough data to work
with, and you might have to collect more—say, from the
Internet. Then, you have to make decisions about how to
solve these problems.

Student B:

So that’s why we study cases? I mean, because

managers need to be able to make decisions . . . and solve
problems?

Professor:

Exactly . . . well, that’s a big part of it, anyway.

And doing this, solving the problem, usually involves role-
playing, taking on the roles of decision-makers at the firm.
One member of the group might play the Chief Executive
Officer, one the Chief Financial Officer, and so on. And you
. . . you might have a business meeting to decide how your
business should solve its problem. Your company might,
say, be facing a cash shortage and thinking about selling off
one division of the company. So your group has to decide if
this is the best way to handle the problem.

Student B:

So we work in groups, then?

Professor:

Usually in groups of four or five. That’s the

beauty of this method. It teaches teamwork and
cooperation.

Student A:

And then what? How are we . . . how do you

decide on a grade for us?

Professor:

You give a presentation, an oral presentation, I

mean, and you explain to the whole class what decision
you made and . . . what recommendations you’d make . . .
and then you write a report as well. You get a grade, a group
grade, on the presentation and the report.

Student B:

Professor, is this the only way we’ll be studying

business, by using cases?

Professor:

Oh, no, it’s just one important way. Some classes

are lecture classes and some are a combination of lectures
and case studies and some . . . in some classes you’ll also
use computer simulations. We have this software called
World Marketplace, and using this program, your group
starts up your own global corporation and tries to make a
profit . . . it’s actually a lot of fun.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 12: Professor Speed mentions several

stages in the history of the case method. Put these steps in
the proper order.

Narrator:

Question 13: What does Professor Speed say

about exhibits?

Narrator:

Question 14: What does the professor mean when

he says this:

Professor:

It wasn’t until . . . when was it? Probably about

1910, 1912, something like that, that it was used . . . first
used at Harvard Business School.

Narrator:

Question 15: Why does Professor Speed mention

his wife?

Narrator:

Question 16: In this lecture, the professor

describes the process of the case study method. Indicate
whether each of the following is a step in the process.

Narrator:

Question 17: Which of the following reasons does

the professor give for using the case study method?

Narrator:

Listen to a student giving a presentation in an

astronomy class.

Student Presenter:

Well, uh, hi, everyone . . . Monday, we

heard Don tell us about the Sun, and, uh, Lisa talk about
Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. My . . . my, uh,
report, what I’m talking about is the next planet, the sec-
ond planet, Venus. Okay, to start off, I’m going to tell you
what people, well, what they used to think about Venus.
First off, back in the really . . . in the really ancient days,
people thought Venus was a star, not a planet, and . . . well,
actually, you know how you can see Venus in the early
morning and in the evening? Well, so they thought it was
two stars, Phosphorus—that was the morning star . . . and,
uh, let’s see, Hesperus, the evening star. And then, once
they figured out it was just one planet, they named it Venus
after the goddess of love—I don’t really know why, though.

And then later, people started studying Venus through a

telescope, and they found out it was covered by clouds. Not
partly covered by clouds, like Earth, but completely
wrapped up in clouds. And since it was closer to the Sun
than Earth, people imagined it was warm there, like it is in
the tropics. In the nineteenth century, there was this belief,
a lot of people believed, for some reason, that there were
these creatures on Venus who were superior to us, almost
perfect beings, like angels or something. Then, uh, in the
early part of the twentieth century, people imagined that,
uh, under the clouds there were swamps and jungles and

Section 2 Guide to Listening 3

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 3

monsters. There was this guy, this author, um, Edgar Rice
Burroughs, he also wrote the Tarzan books, and, uh, he
wrote books in the 1930’s about . . . well, the series was
called “Carson of Venus,” and it was about some explorer
from Earth having wild adventures and fighting monsters
in the jungles. This idea of a “warm” Venus lasted until
the 1950’s.

Okay, so . . . Venus is the brightest object in the sky,

except for the Sun and the moon, and except for the moon
it comes closer to the Earth than any other planet, a lot
closer than Mars, the, uh, fourth planet. One of the articles
I read about Venus said that Venus is Earth’s sister . . .
Earth’s twin, I guess it said. That’s because Venus is about
the same size as Earth . . . and uh, it’s made out of the same
basic materials. And Earth and Venus are about the same
age; they, uh, were formed about the same time.

But really, we know nowadays that Earth and Venus are

not really much like twins. For one thing, the air, the
atmosphere of Venus is made out of carbon dioxide and
sulfuric acid—not very nice stuff to breathe. And it’s really
thick, the atmosphere is. It’s so thick, it’s like being at the
bottom of an ocean on Earth, so if astronauts ever went
there, they’d have to have a . . . something like a diving bell
to keep from getting crushed. And they’d need really good
air conditioning, too, because it’s really hot down there, not
warm the way people used to think. All those clouds hold
in the Sun’s heat, you see. It’s hotter than an oven, hot
enough to melt lead, too hot to have any liquid water. So,
guess what that means—no jungles, no swamps, and no
weird creatures!

Okay, now here’s a really strange fact about Venus. It

takes Venus only 225 Earth days to go around the Sun, as
opposed to the Earth, which of course takes 365 days—
what we call a year. But Venus turns around on its axis
really slowly. Really slowly. It takes 243 Earth days to spin
around completely. The Earth takes—you guessed it—24
hours. This means that a day on Venus is longer than a year
on Venus! In fact, a day on Venus is longer than . . . well,
than on any planet in the solar system, longer even than on
those big gas planets like Jupiter. And here’s something else
weird. All the planets of the solar system turn on their axis
in the same direction as they orbit the Sun. All except
Venus, of course! It has what’s called a . . . wait, let’s see . . .
okay, a “retrograde” spin.

Now, there have been quite a few space probes that have

gone to Venus, so I’m only going to mention a few of them,
the most important ones. I guess, umm, one of the most
important was called Magellan. Magellan was launched in
1990 and spent four years in orbit around Venus. It used,
uh, radar, I guess, to map the planet, and it found out that
there are all these volcanoes on Venus, just like there are on
Earth. The first one to go there, the first probe to go there
successfully, was Mariner 2 in, uh, 1962. Mariner 1 was sup-
posed to go there, but it blew up. There was one, it was
launched by the Soviet Union back in the, uh, let’s see . . .
let me find it . . . hang on, no, here it is, Venera 4 in 1967 . . .
and it dropped instruments onto the surface. They only
lasted a few seconds, because of the conditions, the heat
and all, but this probe showed us how really hot it was.
Then, there was one called Venus Pioneer 2, in 1978. That
was the one that found out that the atmosphere of Venus is
made of carbon dioxide, mostly. And, uh, well, as I said . . .
there were a lot of other ones too.

Well, that’s pretty much it—that’s about all I have to say

about Venus, unless you have some questions.

Professor:

Charlie?

Student Presenter:

Yes, Professor?

Professor:

First, I just want to say . . . good job on your

presentation, Charlie; it was very interesting, and then . . .
well, I just want to add this. You said you weren’t sure why
the planet Venus was named after the goddess of love. It’s
true Venus was the goddess of love, but she was also the
goddess of beauty and . . . well, anyone who’s ever seen
Venus early in the morning or in the evening knows it’s a
beautiful sight.

Student Presenter:

Okay, so, there you have it, everyone—a

mystery solved. Thanks, Professor. Well, I don’t have any-
thing to add, so unless anyone has any questions . . . no?
Well, Caroline will be giving the next report, which is about
the third planet, and since we all live here, that should be
pretty interesting.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 18: How does the speaker introduce the

topic of Venus?

Narrator:

Question 19: According to the speaker, which of

the following were once common beliefs about Venus?

Narrator:

Question 20: In this presentation, the speaker dis-

cusses some similarities between Earth and Venus and
some of the differences between the two planets. Indicate
which of the following is a similarity and which is a
difference.

Narrator:

Question 21: Which of the following is not true

about the length of a day on Venus?

Narrator:

Question 22: In what order were these space

probes sent to Venus?

Narrator:

Question 23: It can be inferred that the topic of

the next student presentation will be about which of the
following?

Narrator:

This is the end of the Listening Preview Test.

[CD 1 Track 3]

Lesson 9: Main-Topic and Main-Purpose Questions

Sample Item

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

professor.

Student:

Professor Dixon? I’m Brenda Pierce. From your

Geology 210 class . . . ?

Professor:

Yes. I know. That’s a big class, but I do recognize

you. As a matter of fact, I noticed you weren’t in class yes-
terday morning. Did you oversleep? That’s one of the prob-
lems with an 8:00 class. I almost overslept myself a couple
of times.

Student:

Oh, uh, no, I didn’t oversleep. In fact, I was up at

Professor:

Well, umm, a few minutes, I guess. This isn’t my

regular office hour. I actually just came by my office to pick
up a few papers before the faculty meeting.

Student:

Okay, well . . . about the research paper . . . how

long does it have to be?

Professor:

Well, as I told the class, the paper counts for 30%

of your grade. It should be at least twelve pages . . . but no

4 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 4

more than twenty-five. And your bibliography should con-
tain at least ten reference sources.

Student:

Will you be assigning the topic, or . . .

Professor:

I’m leaving the choice of topic up to you. Of

course, it should be related to something we’ve discussed
in class.

Student:

I, I’m interested in writing about earthquakes . . .

Professor:

Hmm. Earthquakes . . . well, I don’t know, Brenda

. . . that sounds like much too broad a topic for a short
research paper.

Student:

Oh, well, I’m planning to choose . . . I plan to get

more specific than that. I want to write about using ani-
mals to predict earthquakes.

Professor:

Really? Well, once scientists wondered if maybe

Student:

But I thought there was this . . . I saw this show on

television about earthquakes, and it said that in, uh, China,
I think it was, they did predict an earthquake because of
the way animals were acting.

Professor:

Oh, right, you’re thinking of the Haecheng earth-

quake about thirty years ago. Well, that’s true. There were
snakes coming out of the ground in the middle of winter
when they should have been hibernating . . . and suppos-
edly horses and other animals were acting frightened. And
there were other signs, too, not just from animals. So the
government ordered an evacuation of the area, and in fact,
there was an earthquake, so thousands of lives were proba-
bly saved.

Student:

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking of . . . that’s what I

saw on television.

Professor:

The problem is, that, unfortunately, no one’s

been able to duplicate that kind of result . . . in China or
anywhere. There have been lots of earthquakes since then
that haven’t been predicted, and there have been a couple
of false alarms when cities were evacuated for no reason . . .
and like I said, none of the studies that have been done
have shown that animals are any better at predicting earth-
quakes than people are.

Student:

So that’s . . . so you don’t think that’s a very good

idea for a topic, then, I suppose . . .

Professor:

I didn’t say that . . . just because this theory

hasn’t been proved doesn’t mean you couldn’t write a per-
fectly good paper about this topic . . . on the notion that
animals can predict earthquakes. Why not? It could be
pretty interesting. But to do a good job, you . . . you’ll need
to look at some serious studies in the scientific journals,
not just some pop-science articles in newspapers or . . .
and you can’t get your information from television shows.

Student:

You really think it might make a good paper? Well,

then, I think if I can get enough information from the
library or the Internet . . .

Professor:

Okay, why don’t you see what you can find? Oh, I

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What is this conversation mainly

about?

[CD 1 Track 4]

Narrator:

For the Listening exercises in The Complete

Guide, the directions will not be read aloud on the tape.
Therefore, you must read the directions for each exercise
and make sure you understand them before you start the
Audio Program.

Exercise 9.1

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

librarian.

Student:

Hi, I’m in Professor Quinn’s Political Science class.

She, uh, in class today she said that she’d put a journal on
reserve . . . We’re supposed to read an article from that
journal.

Librarian:

Okay, well, you’re in the right place. This is the

reserve desk.

Student:

Oh, good—I’ve never checked out reserve materi-

als before. So what do I need? Do I need a library card, or
. . . what do I have to do to . . .

Librarian:

You have your student ID card with you, right?

Student:

Umm, I think I do . . . I mean, I think it’s in my

backpack here . . .

Librarian:

Okay, well, all you really need to do is leave your

student ID here with me, sign this form and the journal is
all yours—for—let me see—for two hours anyway.

Student:

Two hours? That’s all the time I get?

Librarian:

Well, when instructors put materials on reserve,

they set a time limit on how long you can use them . . . you
know, just so all the students in your class can get a chance
to read them.

Student:

I don’t know how long the article is, but . . . I guess

I can finish it in two hours.

Librarian:

And, one more thing, you, uh, you’ll have to read

the article in the library. You’re not allowed to check reserve
material out of the library, or to take it out of the building.

Student:

Oh, well, then, . . . maybe I should, uh, maybe I

should go back to my dorm and get some dinner . . . before
I sit down and read this.

Librarian:

That’s fine, but . . . I can’t guarantee the article

will be available right away when you come back . . . some
other student from your class might be using it.

Student:

Well, I dunno, I . . . I guess I’ll just have to take my

chances . . .

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What is the main topic of this

conversation?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

Tina, hey, how are you?

Student B:

Hi, Michael. Hey, how was your summer

vacation?

Student A:

Oh, not too bad—mostly I was working. How

about you? I, uh, I kinda remember you saying that
. . . weren’t you going to Europe? How was that?

Student B:

Oh, that fell through. I was going to travel with

my roommate, and she changed her mind about going, so
. . . well, my parents own a furniture store, and so instead, I
was going to work there. But then . . . well, you know
Professor Grant?

Student A:

Oh, uh, from the archaeology department? Sure

. . . well, I’ve heard of her, anyway.

Student B:

Well, I got a call from her just before the end of

the spring semester. She was planning to do this dig in
Mexico. So she calls me up and asks if I’d like to be a volun-
teer, and you know, I’ve always wanted . . . it’s always been

Section 2 Guide to Listening 5

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 5

a dream of mine to be an archaeologist, so . . . I jumped at
the chance.

Student A:

So, uh, how was it . . . I mean, was it a good

dig . . .

Student B:

Do you mean, did we find any artifacts? No, it . . .

it was supposed to be a very . . . promising site. But it
turned out to be a complete bust! We didn’t find anything
. . . not even one single piece of broken pottery. Nothing!
Just sand!

Student A:

Wow, that must have been pretty disappointing.

Student B:

No, not really. Oh, sure, I mean, I would’ve liked

to have made some amazing discovery, but, well, I still
learned a lot about, about archaeological techniques, you
know, and I really enjoyed getting to know the people, the
other people on the dig, and it . . . well, it was fun!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 2: What is the main subject of the

speakers’ conversation?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and

an administrator.

Administrator:

Yes? Come in.

Student:

Umm, Ms. Kirchner?

Administrator:

Yes?

Student:

I’m, uh, Mark Covelli. I live over in Quincy House?

Administrator:

Yes, so what can I do for you, Mark?

Student:

The woman who’s in charge of the cafeteria over at

Quincy, I talked to her this morning, you see, and . . . well,
she told me that I would have to talk to you . . .

Administrator:

Okay, talk to me about . . . ?

Student:

Okay, well, I’d like to . . . you see, back at the begin-

ning of the semester, my parents signed me up for Meal
Plan 1.You know, the plan where you get three meals a
day . . .

Administrator:

Okay . . .

Student:

So, well, I’ve decided it’s . . . it was kind of a waste

of their money because . . . I mean, I almost never eat three
meals there in a day. Three days a week I have early classes
and I don’t have time to eat breakfast at all, and even on
days when I do eat breakfast there, I just have coffee and
some yogurt so . . . well, I could do that in my room.

Administrator:

So what you’re saying is, you’d like to be on

Meal Plan 2?

Student:

Yeah, I guess . . . whatever you call the plan where

you only eat two meals a day at the dorm . . .

Administrator:

That’s Plan 2. We usually don’t make that

kind of switch in the middle of a semester . . . you know, if I
do approve this, we’d have to make the refund directly to
your parents. And it could only be a partial refund . . . since
you’ve been on Plan 1 for a month already.

Student:

Oh sure, I understand that . . . I just, I just hate to

waste my parents’ money.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 3: Why does Mark Covelli want to speak

to Ms. Kirchner?

Narrator:

Now get ready to listen to a conversation between

two students.

Student A:

Hey, Larry, how are ya? What’re ya up to this

weekend?

Student B:

Oh, my friends and I are going to be working on

our car, the Sunflower II.

Student A:

Wait . . . you have a car called . . . the Sunflower?

Student B:

Yeah, the Sunflower II. Well, it’s not a regular car.

It’s a solar-powered car.

Student A:

Really? That’s why you call it the Sunflower then.

Oh, wait, are you entering it in that race next month . . .
the . . .

Student B:

The Solar Derby. Yeah. It’s sponsored by the

Engineering Department.

Student A:

I read a little about that in the campus paper. I’m

sorry, but the idea of racing solar cars . . . it just sounds a
little . . . . weird.

Student B:

I guess, but there are lots of races for solar-

powered cars. One of the most famous ones is in Australia.
They race all the way from the south coast of Australia to
the north coast.

Student A: But your race . . . it’s not anywhere near that long,

right?

Student B:

No, no, our race is only twenty miles long. We

entered the Sunflower I in it last year and . . .

Student A:

And did you win?

Student B:

Uh, well, no . . . . no, we didn’t actually win . . . In

fact, we didn’t even finish last year. We got off to a good
start but then we had a major breakdown. But since then
we’ve made a lot of improvements to the Sunflower II, and
. . . well, I think we have a pretty good chance this year of
. . . well, if not of winning, of finishing at least in the top
three.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 4: What are these two people mainly

discussing?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

So, Rob, what classes are you taking next

semester?

Student B: Let’s see, uh, I’m taking the second semester of

statistics, calculus, German, and . . . oh, I signed up for a
class in the art department, a photography class.

Student A:

Oh? Who with?

Student B:

Umm, let me think . . . I think her name is . . . I

think it’s Lyons . . .

Student A:

Lyons? I don’t think . . . oh, you must mean

Professor Lyle, Martha Lyle. She’s my advisor, and I’ve taken
a coupla classes from her. She’s just great. She’s not only a
terrific photographer, but she’s also a, well, just a wonderful
teacher. She can take one look at what you’re working on
and tell you just what you need to do to take a better pho-
tograph. I mean, I learned so much about photography
from her. And not only about taking color photographs, but
also black-and-white—which I’d never done before. She
only takes black-and-white photos herself, you know. So
what kinds of photos did you show her?

Student B:

Whaddya mean?

Student A:

When you got permission to take her class, what

kind of photos did you show her? You had to show her your
portfolio, didn’t you?

Student B:

No, I . . . I just registered for her class. The regis-

trar didn’t tell me I needed permission . . .

Student A:

Well, for any of those advanced classes, if you’re

not an art major, or if you haven’t taken any other photog-
raphy classes, you have to get the professor’s permission,
and usually that involves showing your portfolio.

Student B:

Oh, see, they didn’t tell me that when I

registered.

Student A:

Well, I think it says so in the course catalog. But,

you can always sign up for an introductory level photogra-

6 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 6

phy class. You wouldn’t need the instructor’s permission to
do that.

Student B:

No, I . . . I don’t consider myself a . . . well, not a

complete beginner, anyway. I took photos for my school
newspaper when I was in high school . . . not just news
photos but kind of artistic photos too, you know . . . I could
show her those. I’d really like to take her class. From what
you said about her, I think I could learn a lot.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 5: What is the main topic of this

conversation?

[CD 2 Track 2]

Exercise 9.2

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a dance class.

Professor:

Okay, today we’re talking a bit about recording

choreography. Let me start with a question for you. Do you
know what steps dancers used during the first productions
of . . . oh, say, of Swan Lake, or, for that matter, any of the
most famous ballets? . . . That’s really a trick question
because . . . well, in most cases, no one knows, not really.
Believe it or not, no written choreography exists for the
early performances of most of the world’s most famous
classical ballets, or, for that matter, even for a lot of modern
ballet. So, how did choreographers teach dancers how to
perform their dances? Mostly, they demonstrated the steps
themselves, or they had one of the dancers model the steps
for the other dancers. Sure, systems of written choreogra-
phy have been around for a long while. Some systems use
numbers, some use abstract symbols, some use letters and
words, oh, and musical notation, some systems use musi-
cal notes. The two most common systems in use are called
Labanotation, and, uh, the Benesh system, Benesh
Movement Notation it’s called. But here’s the thing—chore-
ographers don’t use these systems all that often. Why not,
you ask. Well, because of the time it takes, because . . . Well,
because recording three-dimensional dance movements,
it’s very difficult, very complex, and especially it’s very
time-consuming. A single minute of dance can take up to
maybe, maybe six hours to get down on paper. You can
imagine how long recording an entire ballet would take!
And choreographers tend to be very busy people. But com-
puter experts came to the choreographers’ rescue.
Computers have been used since the sixties to record cho-
reography. The first one—well, the first one I know about,
anyway, was a program written by Michael Noll . . . and it
was . . . oh, I guess by today’s standards you’d say it was
pretty primitive. The dancers looked like stick figures in a
child’s drawing. But, uh, since the 1980’s, sophisticated pro-
grams have been around, programs that . . . uh . . . well, uh,
they let choreographers record the dancers’ steps and
movements quite easily. The only problem with these,
these software programs, was that they required very pow-
erful computers to run them . . . and as you no doubt know,
not all dance companies have the kind of money you need
to buy a mainframe computer. But because personal com-
puters now have more memory, more power, well, now you
can choreograph a whole ballet on a good laptop.

Oh, and I meant to mention earlier, we owe a lot of the

credit for these improvements in the software for dance
choreography to the space program. Back in the sixties and
seventies, engineers at NASA needed computerized models
. . . three-dimensional, moving models of astronauts’ bod-
ies so that the engineers could design spacesuits and

spacecraft, and it turned out that the models they designed
could be adapted quite nicely to dancers’ bodies. So any-
way, I’ve reserved the computer lab down the hall for the
rest of this class. We’re going to spend the rest of our time
today playing around with some of this choreography soft-
ware, okay? So let’s walk over there . . .

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What is the main point of this lecture?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a psychology class.

Student A:

Excuse me . . . excuse me, Professor Mitchie, but

. . . I’m a little confused about what you just said.

Professor:

You’re confused? Why is that, Deborah?

Student A:

Well, you said that you don’t . . . well, that most

scientists don’t think that ESP really exists.

Professor:

Okay, now you’re clear what I’m talking about

when I say ESP . . .

Student B:

It’s mind-reading, that kind of stuff. Extrasensory

perception.

Professor:

Well, that’s a pretty good definition. It’s . . . well,

it can be telepathy . . . that’s communicating mind to mind.
Or telekinesis . . . that’s moving things with your mind . . . .
precognition, which is knowing the future, or seeing the
future. Other phenomena, too. And the study of ESP is
sometimes called parapsychology.

Student A:

But you think . . . well, you think all that is non-

sense, I guess, right?

Professor:

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t people who have

. . . well, remarkable senses of intuition. But I think that’s
because they’re just very sensitive, very tuned in to their
environments, to the people around them. I don’t think they
have any . . . abnormal mental powers beyond that, no.

Student A:

Well, I was just reading an article about ESP, and

it said that there were scientific experiments done at some
university, I don’t remember where, but the experiments
were done with cards, and that they proved that some peo-
ple could read minds.

Student B:

She’s probably thinking of those experiments at

Duke University . . .

Student A:

Right, it was at Duke.

Professor:

Well, yes, there were a series of experiments at

Duke about seventy years ago. Professor J. P. Rhine—who
was, interestingly enough, a botanist, not a psychologist—
he founded the Department of Parapsychology at Duke,
and he and his wife did a lot of experiments, especially
involving telepathy.

Student B:

He used those cards, didn’t he, the ones with,

like, stars and crosses?

Professor:

Yes. Well, at first he used ordinary playing cards,

but then he started using a deck of twenty-five cards. There
were five symbols on these cards: a star, a cross, some wavy
lines, a circle and, ummm, maybe a square?

Student A:

So how did the experiments work?

Professor:

Well, basically it went like this. One person

turned over the card and looked at it carefully, really trying
to focus on it, to . . . to picture it in his mind. This person
was called the sender. The other person, called the percipi-
ent, had to guess what symbol the sender was looking at. So
. . . if it was just a matter of chance guessing, how many
times should the percipient guess correctly?

Student B:

Five, I guess? I mean, since there are five types of

symbols and . . .

Professor:

And twenty-five cards, yes, that’s right, the law of

averages says that you should get 20% right even if you
have absolutely no ESP talent. So if someone—and they

Section 2 Guide to Listening 7

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 7

tested thousands of people at their lab—if someone on
average got more than 20%, they’d get tested more, and
some of these individuals went on to get remarkably high
scores.

Student A:

So, huh, doesn’t this prove that some people can

. . . that they have powers?

Professor:

Well, after Rhine did his experiments at Duke, a

lot of similar experiments have been done—at Stanford
University, in Scotland, and elsewhere, and the conclusion
. . . most researchers have decided that Rhine’s results were
. . . I guess the kindest word I could use is questionable.
More recent experiments have been done under more care-
fully controlled conditions, and those, uh, remarkable
results, those really high scores that Rhine got have been
rare . . . practically nonexistent. And in science, the trend
should be the opposite.

Student B:

What do you mean, Professor?

Professor:

Well, you know . . . if the phenomenon you’re

studying is real, and the experiments are improved, are
more reliable, then the results you get should be more cer-
tain, not less certain.

Student A:

So that’s why you don’t believe in ESP?

Professor:

To put it in a nutshell—I’ve just never seen any

experimental proof for ESP that stood up to careful
examination.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 2: What are the speakers mainly

discussing?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an archaeology class.

Guest Speaker:

Good afternoon, everyone, I’m Robert Wolf,

and I’m president . . . well, I should say past president of
the State Archaeological Society. I’d like to thank Professor
Kingsly for asking me to, to come in and talk to you all
about a subject I’m pretty passionate about: shipwrecks.
You see, I’m also a diver, and I’m a member of the
International Underwater Archaeology Society, and I’ve
been on a lot of underwater expeditions to investigate
shipwrecks.

A lot of times, when someone mentions shipwrecks, you

think of pirates and treasures buried under the sea. And in
reality, many divers—the ones we call treasure hunters—do
try to find shipwrecks with valuables still aboard them. In
fact, that’s one of the problems we face in this field. Some
shipwrecks have literally been torn apart by treasure
hunters searching for gold coins or jewelry, even if there
wasn’t any there, and underwater archaeologists weren’t
able to get much information from these ships. But, ship-
wrecks are . . . they can be a lot more than just places to
look for treasure. A shipwreck is a time capsule, if you know
what I mean, a photograph, a snapshot of what life was like
at the moment the ship sank. And unlike sites on land, a
shipwreck . . . it’s . . . uncontaminated . . . it’s not disturbed
by the generations of people who live on the site later.
Unless, of course, treasure hunters or someone like that has
gotten there first. And so, they’re valuable tools for archae-
ologists, for historians. For example, the world’s oldest
known shipwreck—it sank in about, ummm, 1400

., off

the coast of Turkey—the artifacts on that ship completely
changed the way we think of Bronze Age civilizations in the
Mediterranean.

So, I’m mostly going to stick to shipwrecks that occurred

here, that happened off the coast of New England, and I’m
going to talk about what we’ve learned from them, what

archaeologists have learned from them. There have been
plenty of shipwrecks in this area. Over the years, fog and
storms and rocks and accidents and sometimes even war
have sunk a lot of ships around New England. I’m going to
be showing you some slides of shipwrecks from trading
ships that sank in Colonial days, in the 1600’s, to the Andrea
Doria, which went down in the 1950’s. The Andrea Doria,
that’s, uh, I suppose that’s the most famous shipwreck in
the area, the Italian ocean liner, the Andrea Doria, and it’s a
deep, dangerous dive to get to it, I’ll tell you. Oh, and after
that we’re going to play a little game. I’m going to show you
some slides of artifacts that were found on board ship-
wrecks, show them just the way they looked when they
were found, and you have to guess what they are.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 3: What does this lecture mainly

concern?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an economics class.

Professor:

Okay, good morning, everyone, I trust everyone

had a good weekend and that you managed to read
Chapter . . . Chapter 7, on taxation. Friday we talked about
the difference between progressive and regressive taxes . . .
and, today, we’re going to talk about two other types of tax-
ation: direct and indirect. What did the text say about direct
taxation? Yes, Troy?

Student A:

Well, the book . . . according to the chapter that

we read, it’s, ummm, that’s when the person who’s being
taxed . . .

Professor:

Well, it could be a person or it could be an

organization.

Student A:

Right. The person or organization who’s being

taxed pays the government directly. Is that it?

Professor:

That’s great. Now, can you provide an example

for us?

Student A:

Yeah, uh, how about income tax?

Professor:

Why would you consider income tax a form of

direct taxation?

Student A:

Well, because, um, the person who earns the

income pays the taxes directly to the government, right?

Professor:

Yes, good, Troy. Okay, so, someone else, what is

indirect taxation? Cheryl?

Student B:

Well, if I understand the book correctly, it’s when

the cost of taxes, of taxation, is paid by someone other than
the, uh, the person . . . or organization . . . that is responsi-
ble for paying the taxes.

Professor:

I’d say you understood the book perfectly—that’s

a good definition. Now, Cheryl, we need an example of
indirect taxation.

Student B:

Okay, let’s see . . . what if someone . . . some

company . . . brings, oh, say, perfume into the country from
France. And let’s say there’s an import tax on the perfume
that the government collects from the company, and then
. . . well, the importer just turns around and charges cus-
tomers more money for the perfume, to, umm, just to pay
the import tax.

Professor:

Good example! Anyone think of another one?

Student A:

How about this: last year, my landlady raised my

rent, and when I asked her why, she said it was because the
city raised her property taxes . . . is that an example?

Professor:

It certainly is. It . . . yes, Cheryl, you have a

question?

Student B:

Yes, Professor, what about sales taxes . . . direct

or indirect?

8 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 8

Professor:

Good question. I’m going to let you all think

about it for just a minute—talk it over with the person sit-
ting next to you, if you want—and then . . . then you’re
going to tell me.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 4: What is the main purpose of this

discussion?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an art class.

Professor:

Hello, everyone . . . today I’m going to be show-

ing you some slides of . . . well, I’m just going to project a
slide on the screen and see if you can tell me who the artist
is and what the name of the painting is. This is his most
famous painting. Here we go. Anyone know?

Student A:

Yeah, I’ve seen that painting before . . . I don’t

remember the name of the artist, but I think the painting is
called Nighthawks at the Diner.

Professor:

Yeah, that’s . . . well, a lot of people call it that,

but the real name of the painting is just Nighthawks.
Anyone know the artist? Anyone? No? The painter is
Edward Hopper. Now tell me . . . what sort of a reaction do
you have when you see it?

Student B:

It’s kind of . . . lonely . . . kind of depressing, and,

uh, bleak. It’s so dark outside, and inside there are these
bright lights but . . . but they’re kinda harsh, the lights are,
and the people in the diner seem . . . well, to me, they look
really lonely.

Professor:

A lot of Hopper’s works show . . . loneliness, iso-

lation. He was a very realistic painter. One of the reasons he
was so realistic, maybe, is that he started off as an illustra-
tor, a commercial artist, and you know, of course, a com-
mercial artist has to be able to paint and draw realistically.
In fact, Hopper spent most of his early career doing illus-
trations and just traveling around. He didn’t develop his
characteristic style, his mature style, until, I’d say, not until
he was in his forties or maybe fifties. Anyway, most of his
paintings show empty city streets, country roads, railroad
tracks. There are paintings of storefronts, restaurants, and
. . . let me show you another, this is the first one of his
mature paintings, and the first one that really made him
famous. It’s called The House by the Railroad. It’s pretty
bleak, too, isn’t it? You’ll notice as we look at more slides
that, uh, well, there aren’t many people in the paintings,
and the ones that you do see, they look . . . you could
almost say impersonal. Melancholy. That’s the . . . mood he
tried to convey. Wait, let me back up just a second. He,
Hopper, always said he was just painting what he saw, that
he wasn’t trying to show isolation and loneliness but . . .
one look at his paintings tells you he wasn’t being com-
pletely honest about this.

Student A:

Some of these paintings remind me of . . . of

those old black-and-white movies from, like, the thirties
and forties.

Professor:

Yeah, I agree. That type of movie, that style of

moviemaking is called film noir. And yeah, it does have that
same feel, doesn’t it? And it’s interesting that you should say
that, because Hopper did have an influence on some
moviemakers. On the other hand, he did not have much of
an influence on his own generation of painters. Nobody
else painted the way Hopper did, at least not until . . . well,
until the photorealistic painters in the sixties and seventies.
But his contemporaries weren’t interested in realism. They
were . . . well, we’ll see some of their works next week when
we talk about abstract expressionism.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 5: What is the main topic of this

discussion?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an advertising class.

Professor:

Morning, class. In our last class, we were talking

about regulation, about regulation in the advertising indus-
try. In fact, you may remember I said that, in the United
States, in some European countries, too, advertising is one
of the most heavily regulated industries there is. What did,
um, what example did I give of regulation, government reg-
ulation of advertising?

Student A:

Well, you . . . you gave the example of . . . that the

United States banned cigarette advertising back in the
1960’s . . .

Professor:

The early 1970’s, actually. That’s right. Up until

then, tobacco companies and their advertising agencies
would portray smoking as part of this . . . oh, this carefree,
this oh-so-glamorous lifestyle. And then it came out in
these scientific studies done by the government that
tobacco smoking was really dangerous, really unsafe, and
so . . . no more tobacco advertisements. At least, not on
television or radio. You could still advertise in magazines,
on billboards, and so on, for a long time after that—don’t
ask me why, but you could. And some studies showed that
. . . the studies seemed to indicate that the advertising ban
. . . oh, and I might mention, there was also negative adver-
tising by the government and anti-smoking groups telling
people not to smoke . . . anyway, these studies showed
that smoking, that the use of tobacco actually went down.
Okay, there were also some examples in the article I asked
you to read for today, other examples of government
regulation . . .

Student:

There was the example from Sweden, about how

Sweden completely banned advertisements for children.

Professor:

Right, for children under twelve. That happened

back in 1991. Now . . . not to get too far off track here, but
since that article was written, there was a European Court
of Justice ruling, and it said that Sweden still has to accept
. . . that it has no control over advertisements that target
Swedish children, advertisements that come from neigh-
boring countries . . . or from satellite. So this undercuts to a
certain extent what the Swedes were trying to do, but still
. . . you can see their intent to . . . to protect their children
from, uh, from the effects of advertising.

Student A:

Don’t you think that law was . . . a little extreme,

maybe?

Professor:

In my opinion? As a matter of fact, yes, yes, I do.

Personally, I think advertisements meant for children
should be controlled—maybe controlled more carefully
than at present—but not necessarily eliminated. And I . . .
speaking for myself still, I think they should be controlled
by a combination of government regulation and self-
regulation. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about
today. Sometimes self-regulation works well enough, but,
but if the idea of self-regulation is to create nothing but
honest advertisements, advertisements that are in good
taste . . . well, you only have to turn on your TV and you’ll
see that this system of self-regulation has its faults, right?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 6: What is the class mainly discussing?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a world literature class.

Section 2 Guide to Listening 9

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 9

Professor:

So, for the rest of the class today, we’re gonna

talk about the two most important poems, epic poems, in
Greek literature. And really, not just in Greek literature, but
in any literature, anywhere in the world. These are the Iliad
and the Odyssey, written by the blind Greek poet Homer—
at least, we think he was blind. Now, if you happen to have
a copy of the syllabus that I gave you last week, you’ll
notice that we’re not gonna be able to . . . we just don’t have
time to read all of these two poems and talk about them.
An epic poem . . . I probably don’t have to tell you this—is a
narrative poem, a really long narrative poem. So we’re
going to read a few passages from the Iliad, and we’ll read a
bit more from the Odyssey. What I want to talk about today
are some of the . . . the ways these two long poems, espe-
cially their main characters, how they’re different.

Some people have said that the Iliad is the world’s great-

est war story, and the Odyssey, that it’s the world’s greatest
travel story. The Iliad tells about the Trojan War, the war
between Troy and the various Greek kingdoms. The Odyssey
tells about a Greek warrior’s trip home, and all the amazing
adventures he has on the way—and he has some wild ones,
too. The warrior’s name is Odysseus, hence the name for
the poem. I think the reason that I prefer the Odyssey to the
Iliad, myself, is that . . . well, I guess you could say, I just
like the main character of the Odyssey better than the main
characters of the Iliad. As I said, the Iliad is the story of the
Trojan War and about the clash, the personality conflict,
between the main characters. The conflict isn’t just
between warriors from either side—a lot of the story deals
with an argument between the two strongest Greek war-
riors, Achilles and Agamemnon. Anyway, the main charac-
ters in the Iliad, they’re strong, they’re great warriors, but
you know . . . they’re not as clever, not as smart as
Odysseus. He’s the one who thinks up the plan to end the
war—after ten long years—and defeat the Trojans. He’s the
. . . the mastermind behind the scheme to build the Trojan
Horse—you probably know something about that already,
the Trojan Horse has been in lots of movies and so on . . .
anyway, he helps end the ten-year war, and then he sets off
for home and his family. It takes him another ten years to
get home, where his wife has been waiting faithfully for
him for twenty years, but . . . but like I said, he has plenty of
adventures on the way.

Oh, and the other thing about Odysseus that I like is that

. . . well, the characters in the Iliad are pretty static . . . you
know what I mean? They are . . . they don’t change much.
This is true of most of Homer’s characters, in fact. But it’s
not true of Odysseus. During the course of the epic, on
account of the long war and all the, the bizarre experiences
he has on the way home . . . he changes. He evolves as a
character, just like characters in most modern novels do.

Okay, then, before we go on . . . does anyone have any

comments? Comments or questions?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 7: What is the main point of this lecture?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a modern history class.

Professor:

All right, then, I want to talk about the founding

of the United Nations, but before I do, I want to just men-
tion the League of Nations, which was the predecessor of
the United Nations. Last week, we talked about the end of
the First World War—it ended in 1918, if you remember.
Well, right after the war, several leaders of the countries
that had won the war, including Wilson of the United
States, and Lloyd George of Britain, Clemenceau of France

. . . oh, and Jan Smuts of South Africa, and, well, there were
others too . . . they recognized the need for an international
organization, an organization to keep the peace. So when
the agreement that ended the war, the Treaty of Versailles, it
was called, was signed, it included a provision that . . . that
included formation of the League of Nations. Its headquar-
ters were in Geneva, Switzerland.

But, the problem with the League from the beginning

was that some of the most powerful nations of the time
never joined. As I said, the, ah, the main drive, the main
impetus for forming the League came from Woodrow
Wilson, president of the United States. But during the
1920’s, the United States went through a period of isola-
tionism. In other words, it just basically withdrew from
international affairs. Wilson worked and worked to get the
U.S. Senate to agree to join the League, but he never could.
Other powerful nations joined but then quit—or were
kicked out. This included Brazil, Japan, Germany, the Soviet
Union . . . The other problem was, ah . . . the League of
Nations never had any power, really, no power to enforce
its decisions. It had no armed forces. It could only apply
economic sanctions, boycotts, and these were pretty easy
to get around.

The League of Nations did have a few successes early

on. It helped prevent wars between Bulgaria and Greece,
Iraq and Turkey, and Poland and Lithuania in the 1920’s.
And the League also had some success in refugee work and
famine relief and so on. Oh, and it brokered some deals,
some treaties to get countries to reduce the size of their
navies. But . . . the League was completely, totally powerless
to stop the buildup to the Second World War in the 1930’s.

So, ah, during the war, during World War II, I mean, the

League didn’t meet. Then, after the war, it was replaced by
the United Nations, which, of course, was headquartered in
New York City.

Still, the League of Nations was, ah . . . well, I think it

served an important role. It developed a new model of
Internationalism. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, “Internationalism” really just meant alliances of
powerful nations, and these alliances often dragged other
countries into conflict—that’s what happened, really, that’s
what led to World War I. But the League was at least an
attempt to bring all the nations of the world together to
work for peace. True, it didn’t work, not really, but at least
there was an effort made. Oh, and another thing I meant to
add, the structure of the League of Nations, the, ah, admin-
istrative structure, the “government,” if you will—was very
similar to that of the United Nations. The secretary-general,
the secretariat, the general assembly, the security council,
these are all fixtures of the United Nations that came from
the League of Nations.

Okay, we’re going to have to wait until next class to dis-

cuss the United Nations, but . . . I just wanted you to be
aware of the League of Nations because of its role, its, ah
. . . place in history, which I think has often been
misunderstood . . .

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 8: What is the main subject of this

lecture?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an environmental studies

class.

Professor:

Let’s go ahead and get started. I’d like to finish up

our discussion of alternative energy sources this week
. . . Remember our definition of an alternative energy

10 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 10

source? It has to be environmentally friendly . . . non-
polluting, in other words. And what else? Renewable. Not
like oil or coal. When you use those, bang, they’re gone,
they’re used up. Renewable sources keep replacing
themselves.

Okay, so we discussed solar power and wind power one

day . . . and tidal energy, energy from the waves . . . hydro-
electric power from waterfalls, we discussed that, too
. . . and in our last class we talked about one kind of geo-
thermal energy, hydrothermal energy. That’s the energy
that comes from hot water, from hot springs under the
earth. In places like, oh, say, Iceland, parts of New Zealand,
where you have these, uh, features, this can be a very good
source of heat and power. But unfortunately, hot springs
aren’t found all over the world. Okay, well, there is another
source of geothermal power, called “hot dry rock.” That’s
hot dry rock, or HDR. Ever heard of it? No, eh? Well, the
chances are, you’ll hear a lot about it before long.

How does HDR energy work? Well, in theory, anyway . . .

and let me stress, I say in theory . . . it’s pretty simple. You
use oil-well drilling equipment, big drills, and you punch
two holes down into the earth about, oh, maybe two
miles—five kilometers, maybe—that’s about as far as you
can drill into the earth, for now, at least. Down there, deep
in the earth, there is this extremely hot cauldron of rock, of
granite. So then, you pump water from the surface into the
first tube. The water goes down to the hot rock and
becomes superheated. Then, the superheated water rises
up the second tube—oh, I forgot to mention that these two
tubes are interconnected—this hot water rises up the other
tube and you use that to heat up a volatile liquid—do I
need to go into what I mean by that? No? Okay. So then,
this volatile liquid turns into a vapor, a gas, and you use it
to turn an electrical turbine, and . . . bingo, you have elec-
tricity! And then, when the water has cooled down, you just
send it down the first tube again, so that you don’t waste
water.

So, does HDR technology meet our criteria for alterna-

tive energy? Let’s see. Is it environmentally friendly? You
bet. There are no toxic gases, no greenhouse emissions, no
nuclear wastes. Is it renewable? Sure it is, ’cause the earth
automatically replaces the heat that is used.

Here’s another possibility . . . if you built a big HDR facil-

ity by the seacoast, you could pump seawater down one
tube. The seawater is heated way past boiling, so you could
separate water vapor from the salt and other minerals in
the seawater. After you used the hot water vapor to gener-
ate electricity, you’d have pure, fresh water for thirsty cities
nearby—and as a side effect, you have the salt.

Now, will this work everywhere? No, conditions have to

be just right—you have to have really, really hot granite
masses no more than about 5 kilometers below the earth.
We know there are places like this in Australia, in the south-
western United States, in France, a few other places. There
are probably a lot of other sites too, that we are not aware
of. In fact, there may be a lot of HDR sites, and who knows
how important a source of power this may turn out to be.
Right now, engineers are building a small, prototype HDR
station in southern Australia and one in New Mexico. These
could be up and running in a decade or less. Of course, get-
ting started will be expensive. Drilling a hole that far into
the ground, building generators, all of that will cost lots of
money. But, you know, the way oil prices keep going up—
HDR energy production could become more and more
financially attractive.

Okay, I’m gonna hand out a diagram of what one of

these, uh, prototype HDR facilities looks like, the one in

Australia, and then once you’ve had a chance to take a look
at it, we’ll talk some more about it.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 9: What is the main idea of this lecture?

[CD 2 Track 3]

Lesson 10: Factual, Negative Factual,
and Inference Questions

Sample Item 1

Narrator:

Listen to part of a discussion in a business class.

Professor:

What does a case look like? Well, cases are basi-

Student B:

Exhibits? What are those?

Professor:

Exhibits . . . those are documents, statistical doc-

Narrator:

What does the professor say about exhibits?

[CD 2 Track 4]

Sample Item 2

Narrator:

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

Professor:

So, what are conditions like in the taiga? Well, to

start with, you’ve gotta understand that it’s cold there. I
mean, very cold. Summers are short, winters long. So the
organisms that call the taiga home have to be well adapted
to cold. The trees in the taiga, as I already said, are conifer-
ous trees like the pine, fir, and spruce. And these trees,
they’ve adapted to cold weather. How? Well, for one thing,
they never lose their leaves—they’re “evergreen,” right,
always green, so in the spring, they don’t have to waste
time—don’t have to waste energy—growing new leaves.
They’re ready to start photosynthesizing right away. And
then, for another thing, these trees are conical—shaped like
cones—aren’t they? This means that snow doesn’t accumu-
late too much on the branches; it just slides off, and so,
well, that means their branches don’t break under the
weight of the snow. And even their color—that dark, dark
green—it’s useful because it absorbs the sun’s heat.

Narrator:

When discussing needle-leaf trees, which of these

adaptations to cold weather does the professor mention?

[CD 2 Track 5]

Sample Item 3

Narrator:

Listen to part of a student presentation in an

astronomy class.

Section 2 Guide to Listening 11

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 11

Student:

Okay, now here’s a really strange fact about Venus.

It takes Venus only 225 Earth days to go around the Sun, as
opposed to the Earth, which of course takes 365 days—
what we call a year. But Venus turns around on its axis
really slowly. Really slowly. It takes 243 Earth days to spin
around completely. The Earth takes—you guessed it—24
hours. This means that a day on Venus is longer than a year
on Venus! In fact, a day on Venus is longer than . . . well,
than on any planet in the solar system, longer even than on
those big gas planets like Jupiter. And here’s something else
weird. All the planets of the solar system turn on their axis
in the same direction as they orbit the Sun. All except
Venus, of course! It has what’s called a . . . wait, let’s see . . .
okay, a “retrograde” spin.

Narrator:

Which of the following is not true about the

length of a day on Venus?

[CD 2 Track 6]

Sample Item 4

Narrator:

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

Professor:

Lots of the mammals that live in the taiga

migrate to warmer climates once cold weather sets in. But
there are some year-round residents. Among the preda-
tors—the animals that hunt other animals—there are Arctic
foxes, wolves, bears, martens, oh, and ermines. There’s one
thing all these predators have in common, the ones that
live there all year round . . . they all have thick, warm fur
coats, don’t they? This heavy fur keeps them toasty in the
winter. Of course, on the downside, it makes them desir-
able to hunters and trappers. Some of these predators sur-
vive the winter by hibernating, by sleeping right through it
. . . bears, for example. And some change colors. You’ve
heard of the ermine, right? In the summer, the ermine is
dark brown, but in the winter, it turns white. That makes it
hard to spot, so it can sneak up on its prey.

Then, uh, what sorts of herbivores live up there? What

Narrator:

What does the speaker imply about moose?

[CD 2 Track 7]

Exercise 10.1

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

I’m glad we could get together for coffee today,

Cindy. You know . . . it just seems like forever since I’ve
seen you.

Student B:

I know. It seems . . . I just never see anyone from

our freshman dorm days. Ever since I, basically ever since I
started student-teaching, I’ve been just swamped. I never
knew how much work . . . you know, it always seemed to
me that teachers had it pretty easy—short work days, sum-
mers off, but . . . I never realized how much work you have
to take home. Sometimes I’m grading papers until . . .
sometimes until after midnight!

Student A:

Wow, no wonder we never see you anymore.

Student B:

Yeah, and since I’m not taking any classes, any

regular classes, on campus this term, I hardly ever get up
here. I seem to be spending my whole life at West Platte
Middle School—that’s where I’m student teaching.

Student A:

So how come you’re free today?

Student B:

Oh, this week is spring break for the middle

school, for the . . . the whole school district. So I came to
campus to talk to my academic advisor.

Student A:

Oh, I didn’t realize that—our spring break isn’t

until next week. So . . . how’s it going? With the teaching, I
mean? Except for the long hours . . . do you . . . are you
enjoying it?

Student B:

Well, let me tell you, at first, I thought it was

going to be a disaster! A complete disaster! You know, I, I
always saw myself teaching in high school, but . . . there
were no student-teaching positions open in any of the high
schools in the district. I mean zero, except for one for a
German teacher! So that’s . . . that’s how I ended up at West
Platte. And that wasn’t the only problem. You know I
majored in education but I took lots of classes in physics
and chemistry, so I figured they’d put me in a science class-
room. But noooo! The only available classes for me to teach
were a couple of math classes.

Student A:

Wow, so you really . . . you really didn’t get any-

thing you wanted, did you?

Student B:

As a matter of fact, no! But you know, it’s actually

turned out okay. For one thing, I had a good background in
math, and so, really, teaching math was no problem—
although I’d still rather teach science. But, it turns out, I like
teaching in a middle school, I like it much more than I
thought I would. I like working with kids that age. So . . .
guess what, I’ve decided to look for a job at a middle school
instead of at a high school after I graduate.

Student A:

So, what do you need to talk to your advisor

about?

Student B:

Oh, I need to talk to her about next fall, to set up

my class schedule for then.

Student A:

Really? I thought you were all done. I thought

you’d finished all your required classes and you were going
to graduate when you finished student teaching.

Student B:

Well, I have finished all my required classes, I

have all the coursework I need in education and in science
but . . . I still don’t have enough, not quite enough total
credits to graduate. So today, I’m . . . my advisor and I . . .
are going to decide which electives I should take next
semester. I’m thinking of maybe taking a literature class.
I’ve always wanted to take a Shakespeare class, but I’ve
never had time.

Student A:

Oh, well, I’m just glad you’ll be around next

fall—we can get together more often.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What is Cindy’s major?

Narrator:

Question 2: What decision about her future has

Cindy recently made?

Narrator:

Question 3: What was Cindy’s main reason for

coming to campus today?

Narrator:

Question 4: What will Cindy be doing next

semester?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

visitor to the campus.

Student A:

Uh, excuse me, but, uh, I’m trying to find my

way to the Reynolds Building.

Student B:

The Reynolds Building? Hmmm. I’m afraid I

don’t know where that is.

Student A:

Really? But I understand that . . . I was told that

there’s a graduate student exhibit opening today at the
Reynolds Art Building.

12 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 12

Student B:

Oh, now I know where you mean. I was there

earlier today, matter of fact. Yeah, I guess . . . I guess the
Reynolds Art Building is its official name, but no one on
campus calls it that . . . everyone just calls it the art building.

Student A:

The art building, okay. So, uh, how do I get

there?

Student B:

Well, just go straight ahead and then . . . first you

come to the main library, right? Then you see a walkway
leading off to the left. Go that way, and walk past the, uh . . .
let’s see, the chemistry building . . .

Student A:

Wait . . . I go to the library, I take the walkway to

the right . . .

Student B:

No, to the left past the chem building. Then you

cross a little service road. You just walk a little bit farther,
and you see the art building . . . the Reynolds Building. You
can’t miss it because there’s a big metal . . . thing on a plat-
form right in front of it.

Student A:

A thing?

Student B:

Yeah, there’s this . . . this big rusty piece of

abstract “art.” I guess you’d call it art. Anyway, it’s right in
front of the doorway.

Student A:

A big abstract metal sculpture. Okay, I think I’ve

got it.

Student B:

I think you’ll like the exhibit. Like I said, I

dropped by there this morning and took a quick look
around, because—I’m an art major myself, and because,
well, grad student exhibits are usually great. My favorite
pieces . . . there’s this one little room off the main gallery
and it’s full of sculptures made all . . . they’re all made from
neon lights. They’re just beautiful, the way they glow. I
couldn’t believe it wasn’t the work of some, some profes-
sional artist.

Student A:

Well, the main reason I’m going is . . . my sister

invited me to the opening. She wanted me to see her
newest work.

Student B:

Your sister’s an artist?

Student A:

Yeah, she’s a painter. She also, well, she just

started volunteering to teach art to kids and . . . I think the
way her students paint has sort of rubbed off on her. I think
her kids have influenced her more than she’s influenced
them, as a matter of fact. She’s using these bright colors,
and . . .

Student B:

Oh I think I saw her paintings! There was one of

a house perched on a hill, and another one of a purple lion.
I love the colors she uses!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 5: Why was the woman confused at first

when the man asked her for directions?

Narrator:

Question 6: According to the woman, what is

directly in front of the art building?

Narrator:

Question 7: What was the woman’s favorite

exhibit at the art show?

Narrator:

Question 8: What can be inferred from the con-

versation about the man’s sister?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

So, Paul, figured out yet where you’re gonna live

next semester? Are you gonna live in the dorm again or off-
campus?

Student B:

Well, to tell you the truth, I . . .

Student A:

Because, here’s the thing . . . I’ve leased this big

three-bedroom apartment . . . it’s within walking distance
of campus . . . and I only have one other roommate lined
up at the moment . . . and so I was just wondering, if you
need a place next semester . . .

Student B:

It’s nice, really nice of you to think of me, Dave,

but, I’m not actually going to be living here next fall. I, uh,
I’m not going to need a place to live.

Student A:

What? You’re leaving Rutherford? Are you trans-

ferring, or . . .

Student B:

No, uh, actually . . . I’ve decided to do . . . to take

part in a Semester Abroad program. I’m going to spend the
semester in Athens.

Student A:

Really? You mean you’re going to be studying in

Greece?

Student B:

Uh huh . . . I’m really excited about it. It’s about

all I can think of.

Student A:

But, um, you don’t speak any Greek, do you?

Student B:

No, not a word. But the one and only required

course in this program is an intensive language course in
modern Greek. So I guess I’ll learn some once I get there.

Student A:

So what . . . what made you decide on Greece?

Student B:

Well, you know, I’m a history major, and eventu-

ally I’d like to teach history at the university level, and so I
thought I’d like to study history where a lot of it was made.
And Professor Carmichael . . . she’s my advisor . . . she said
we’d be visiting a lot of historical sites all over Greece. She
really talked up the idea of signing up for this program.
Also, I’m interested in theater, and I’ll be taking a course in,
uh, Greek drama too.

Student A:

You know, I’ll bet it’s gonna be . . . it’s gonna be a

real challenge. I mean, it was hard enough for me to find a
decent apartment here in town where I’ve lived for a couple
of years and hey, I speak the language. So I can’t even imag-
ine looking for an apartment someplace like Athens and
not being able to speak Greek . . .

Student B:

Okay, well, there are actually two kinds of . . . of

Semester Abroad programs. One is called an independent
program. If you sign up for that kind of program . . . that’s
the kind of program you’re thinking of, probably—then you
have to make your own travel plans, you find your own
housing, you make your own arrangements for meals,
you’re . . . you’re basically on your own except for the aca-
demic program. But the other type of program—they call it
an “island plan”—

Student A:

Why do they call it that?

Student B:

I dunno. I guess . . . I guess because you’re kinda

on your own little island even though you’re overseas.
Anyway, if you go with the island plan, you . . . you stay at a
dorm with other students from here at Rutherford College,
and you eat with them . . . and the program makes all the
airline arrangements, someone meets you at the airport . . .
transportation from the dorm to the school—that’s all
taken care of . . . just about everything is arranged in
advance for you. That’s the program I . . . that’s how I
decided to go. I . . .

Student A:

Oh, that’s the way I’d do it too, if I were going. It

just sounds . . . so much easier and you wouldn’t feel so . . .
so isolated, living alone . . . .

Student B:

Well, in a way, I’d rather be in an independent

program. It might be a bit tough, but I think I could handle
it. And I mean, I think I’d learn more about Greece, and, uh,
I’d get to meet more local people. There are some pro-
grams, in fact, where they place you with a local family. I’d
actually love to live with a family or just out in the commu-
nity. Plus it’s cheaper to go that way.

Student A:

So . . . why are you doing that island

program, then?

Student B:

Well, the main reason is time. My reason for

going over there is to concentrate on classes, and I think I
would spend all my time taking care of . . . well, just making
living arrangements.

Section 2 Guide to Listening 13

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 13

Student A:

So, will your teachers all be from Greece?

Student B:

The Greek language professor is, and some of

the other teachers too, but some are from here at
Rutherford and from other U.S. universities. Professor
Carmichael, my advisor, is going to be teaching over there
this year. She’s never taught in Greece before, but she
taught in a similar program in France a couple of years ago.

Student A:

Well, it sounds great . . . I wish I could go myself!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 9: Which of these courses is required for

students in the Semester Abroad program in Greece?

Narrator:

Question 10: Which of these is characteristic of

the “island plan” Paul will take part in?

Narrator:

Question 11: Why did Paul decide not to take part

in the independent plan?

Narrator:

Question 12: What does Paul say about Professor

Carmichael?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

Morning, Steve . . . boy, you look exhausted!

Student B:

Do I? Well, guess that’s to be expected. I was up

almost all night, trying to get ready for my chemistry mid-
term this morning.

Student A:

Really? Any idea how you did on it?

Student B:

Yeah, as a matter of fact, Doctor Porter’s already

posted grades on her office door, and I . . . well, I could
have done a whole lot better.

Student A:

That really surprises me, Steve. You know so

much about science.

Student B:

Yeah, well, it’s not surprising to me. I just . . . I

mean, I know the material, but for some reason, when it
comes to taking tests . . . I never do well. If a class grade
depends on a research paper, I do just fine, but when it
comes to taking tests . . . especially multiple-choice tests
. . . I just look at the questions and I draw a blank.

Student A:

Have you ever considered taking some seminars

at the Study Skills Center?

Student B:

Uh, I don’t really know anything about it.

Student A:

Well, the Center’s run by some grad students and

junior professors that help undergraduates . . . well, help
them get organized . . . learn some techniques that help
them do better in their classes. When I first got here last
year, I took a course from them on . . . on how to do aca-
demic research on the Internet, and another one on writing
term papers. They were really good, really useful.

Student B:

Hmmm . . . so, what . . . what other kinds of

courses do they offer?

Student A:

Well, I don’t know all the courses they offer, but I

know they have a class on test-taking skills.

Student B:

Wow, that’s right up my alley.

Student A:

And I know there’s one on . . . how to, you know,

manage your time . . . how to use time efficiently.

Student B:

Yeah, well . . . I guess that’s something I need too.

Student A:

I should tell you . . . one of the things they’re

going to tell you is not to stay up all night cramming for
a test.

Student B:

Yeah, I . . . I already know it’s not a great idea, but

I . . . I just felt like it was the only way I could get ready . . .

Student A:

As a matter of fact, they’ll tell you it’s the worst

thing you can do . . . you need to be fresh and rested for
a test.

Student B:

Yeah, well . . . I did drink plenty of coffee to keep

me alert. So, anyway, where is the Center?

Student A:

They have a little office in Staunton Hall, across

the quadrangle from the physics tower, you know where I
mean? That’s where you go to sign up. They actually hold
their seminars in the main library. I don’t know if they’re
holding any seminars just now, but, uh, I think they start
new ones every six weeks or so.

Student B:

I should go by there now and try to talk to

someone.

Student A:

You know, if I were you, Steve . . . I think I’d go by

there tomorrow. Right now, you should go back to your
dorm and catch up on your sleep.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 13: Why does Steve look tired?

Narrator:

Question 14: How does Steve feel about the grade

that he received on the chemistry test?

Narrator:

Question 15: Who teaches the seminars at the

Study Skills Center?

Narrator:

Question 16: Which of the courses at the Study

Skills Center will Steve probably be most interested in?

Narrator:

Question 17: Where is the Study Skills Center?

Narrator:

Question 18: What does the woman suggest Steve

do now?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

campus housing administrator.

Student:

Hi, I’m Jeff Bloom. I’m, uh, here to talk to someone

about the . . . the Resident Advisor position?

Administrator:

Oh, hi, I’m Frances Delfino. You can talk to

me about that. Did you see our ad in the campus paper?

Student:

No, uh, Mr. Collingswood, down in the off-campus

housing office, uh, he suggested I come by and chat
with you.

Administrator:

Oh, okay, so . . .

Student:

Let me tell you what’s happening with me. . . . I’ve

been living off-campus, living by myself in an apartment,
right, which is great, but my landlord decided to sell the
house I’m living in, and the new owner is . . . well, first she’s
going to remodel, so I have to move out anyway . . . then
she’s gonna rent the apartments for a lot more money . . .
and, well, to make a long story short, I need a place to live
just for one more semester.

Administrator:

And you’re interested in becoming a

Resident Advisor?

Student:

Well, I . . . I came by the housing office today to see

if . . . well, the off-campus housing office has a list of apart-
ments available . . . but everything on the list is too expen-
sive, or way too far from campus, or you need to sign a
year’s lease. There just wasn’t anything on the list that inter-
ested me so . . . so Mr. Collingswood suggested I come up
and see you. He said there were some Resident Advisor
positions open at one of the men’s dorms and that I, I, uh,
could get some information about these positions from you.

Administrator:

Fine, well, I can tell you a little about the

R.A. positions . . . the Resident Advisor positions . . . We do
have a couple of openings for grad students or older upper-
classmen. If you lived in a dorm yourself, you probably
know all about what an R.A. does . . .

Student:

Well, actually, I never did live in a dorm. I’ve

always lived off-campus so I . . . I have no idea . . .

Administrator:

Well, there’s one R.A. per floor . . . we have

openings in Donahue Hall and Hogan Hall . . . and you . . .
you inform students of . . . oh, you know, university rules,
regulations, policies . . . you organize a few social events for
residents . . . and, uh, well, there are a lot of other things
you may have to do . . . help students who are locked out of

14 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 14

their rooms, uh, in general, you’re kind of a mentor, you
help students solve their problems . . .

Student:

Hmmm, that . . . that doesn’t sound so bad. And

. . . well, my only other option is to share an apartment
with a roommate, and I . . . I don’t think I want to do that.

Administrator:

Well, if you took an R.A. position, you

wouldn’t have to share. You’d have your own room and . . .
in fact, the R.A. rooms are actually a little larger than the
typical resident rooms.

Student:

So, how much does it pay?

Administrator:

Oh, didn’t Mr. Collingswood mention that?

There’s no salary—it’s not exactly a paid position. But your
room is free and you’re entitled to ten meals per week at
the cafeteria at Donahue Hall.

Student:

Really? Hmmm, well, I guess I’d be saving a lot of

money on rent and on meals but . . . I . . . well, here’s what
I’m most worried about—the noise. I’m just afraid it would
be too noisy for me to study, to concentrate. See, like I said,
I’m in my last semester here, and I’m taking some pretty
tough classes this semester. I just . . . .

Administrator: Well, I’m not going to lie to you and say that

the residents will always be quiet and orderly. I mean, come
on, they’re undergrads, mostly freshmen, so . . . it will proba-
bly be noisier than what you’re used to, especially on week-
ends. But during the week, there are quiet hours, from 7 till
10 and then from midnight on . . . in fact, one of your duties
is to enforce . . . is to make sure these quiet hours stay quiet.

Student:

So, suppose I decide I want to . . . to apply for an

R.A. position, what, uh, what would I need to do?

Administrator:

I can give you a form to fill out. You’d also

need to get two letters of recommendation . . .

Student:

Letters? Who from?

Administrator:

Oh, teachers, administrators, you know,

someone like that. Oh, also, I have a pamphlet that
describes the position in more detail. You can look that
over. And I could give you e-mail addresses for a couple of
R.A.s. You could contact them, see how they like the job,
see what kinds of experiences they’ve had.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 19: Why does Jeff have to move out of

his apartment?

Narrator:

Question 20: How did Jeff find out about the

Resident Advisor position?

Narrator:

Question 21: What will Jeff receive if he becomes

a Resident Advisor?

Narrator:

Question 22: What does Ms. Delfino suggest Jeff

do to get more information about the position?

[CD 3 Track 2]

Exercise 10.2

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an anthropology class.

Professor:

Morning, class. I want to start off this morning

with a question for you. How many of you have ever been
to a potluck dinner? Oh, lots of you, I see. Okay, who can
describe a potluck dinner for me? Andy?

Student A:

It’s just a dinner where all the guests bring dishes

for . . . well, to share with everyone else. Someone might
bring salad, someone might bring dessert . . .

Student B:

It’s a way you can have a dinner party with your

friends and not spend a million dollars, because everyone
brings something.

Professor:

You’re right. Well, today we’re gonna be dis-

cussing a ceremony called the potlatch.

Student A:

I’m sorry, the what?

Professor:

The potlatch. Here, I’ll put it on the board for

you. This is a ceremony held by Native Americans and
Native Canadians in the Pacific Northwest—from
Washington state north to British Columbia, all the way up
to Alaska. Potlatches were held to . . . well, for all kinds of
reasons . . . to celebrate births, weddings, naming cere-
monies, even a good catch of salmon. Now, some linguists
think that the English word potluck might be derived from
this word potlatch. The word potlatch is originally from the
Chinook language. The Chinooks were a group of Native
Americans who lived along the Columbia River. A form of
their language, called Chinook Trade Jargon, became a
trade language, a language used by tribes all over the
region to communicate with one another. So, ah, the word
potlatch spread, and . . . and before long, it was used by all
the tribes in the Pacific Northwest.

Student B:

Professor Burke, were these potlatches . . . were

they sort of like the potlucks we have today?

Professor:

Well, no, as a matter of fact, they were quite a bit

different. I suppose the best way . . . I think the best way to
describe a potlatch is as a birthday party in reverse.

Student B:

Huh? A . . . birthday party in reverse? What do

you mean?

Professor:

Well, at a birthday party, what happens? The

guests all bring gifts, right? At a potlatch, it’s the host who
gives the gifts and the guests who receive them.

Student A:

Sounds like a pretty good deal for the guests!

Professor:

In a way it was, but—but in a way it wasn’t. Let

me describe a typical potlatch to you. A host—it was often
a chief or an important person of some kind—would invite
people from his tribe or from other tribes in the area. The
guests would arrive and there would be some dancing.
Then the guests would be seated, and the host and his
family, his relatives would serve the guests a huge, formal
feast . . .

Student B:

Professor Burke, excuse me . . . I couldn’t help

wonder . . . what kind of food would be served at these
potlatches?

Professor:

Well, the tribes that had potlatches all lived near

the ocean, so what kind of food do you think they served?

Student B:

Ummm . . . I’m guessing fish.

Professor:

Right. Mostly salmon, salmon was the staple

food of the Northwest tribes, they spent a lot of their time
salmon fishing and then preserving salmon . . . They might
also serve whale meat, or seal meat, or venison. They’d dip
these foods into pots of seal oil to give them more flavor.
And . . . the hosts would always serve more than the guests
could possibly eat. Okay, then after the feasting, the host
would start distributing gifts.

Student B:

What kind of gifts would the host give away?

Professor:

Well, the most common gift was food: salmon.

The host would pack smoked fish in these . . . these elabo-
rately carved boxes. Other gifts they might give . . . goat-
hair blankets, jewelry, wooden masks. And, and, ah, after
these tribes came in contact with Americans and
Canadians of European origin, the gifts became more . . .
more varied. There might be sacks of flour, dishes, eating
utensils. I even remember seeing a photograph of a pot-
latch from, oh, around 1900, where a guest is receiving a
sewing machine!

Student B:

So, what else happened at a potlatch?

Professor:

Well, then the host would usually destroy some

of his most valuable possessions, such as fishing canoes,

Section 2 Guide to Listening 15

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 15

and he’d throw coins and . . . and almost anything valuable
into the sea . . .

Student A:

What?! Excuse me, Professor . . . I just don’t get it.

It just seems kinda crazy to me. Why would anyone want to
host a party like that?

Professor:

Okay, well, first off, gift-giving rituals like this are

not all that uncommon. I mean, there have been societies
all around the world that have gone in for these types of
ceremonies, but . . . but having said that, I can’t think of any
other society where it was such a, such a central part of the
culture. See, these tribes . . . to them, status . . . prestige . . .
Well, in short, they were highly status conscious. To them,
looking good in the eyes of other people was very, very
important, and that’s what a, a potlatch was all about. It
was a means of establishing rank. Status. Power.

Student A:

How’s that?

Professor:

Well, by accepting gifts at a potlatch, the guests

. . . they acknowledged the wealth and the generosity of
their hosts. And when they were destroying or throwing
away valuables, the hosts were really saying, “I’m so impor-
tant, I’m so wealthy, I can afford to smash up my stuff and
throw away my money!”

Student A:

Well, I still think it was a much better deal to be

a guest than to be a host at these parties.

Professor:

Ah, but you see, Andy, there was a catch! In some

ways, potlatches were actually a form of . . . of investment.

Student A:

Investment?

Professor:

Sure. The guests, all the guests at a potlatch were

honor-bound to pay the host back by having potlatches of
their own and inviting the host.

Student A:

Oh, I get it—it was an investment because then

the host would be invited to lots of potlatches.

Professor:

Right. And the potlatches that the guests held

had to be at least as elaborate as the one they’d been
invited to. There was this one tribe called the Kwakiutl who
lived up on Vancouver Island. Now this group . . . they
really turned the potlatch into an art form. They had the
most elaborate, most ritualistic potlatches of all the tribes
in the Northwest. When the Kwakiutl held potlatches, they
would use the ceremony as a . . . as a kind of weapon, a
form of revenge against their enemies. They’d throw such
extravagant potlatches that their enemies would go broke
trying to match them.

Student A:

Wow, that was a . . . a clever way to get back at

their enemies!

Student B:

So, do these tribes still have potlatches?

Professor:

That’s a really good question. Both the U.S. gov-

ernment and the Canadian government banned potlatches
back in the 1880’s—although some tribes no doubt held
potlatch ceremonies in secret. I suppose government offi-
cials just somehow didn’t like the idea of people giving
away their possessions. At the time, they didn’t realize how
important potlatches were . . . important culturally, socially,
religiously to the tribes. But nowadays—in fact, ever since
the 1930’s in Canada and the 1950’s in the United States—
potlatches are legal again. If anything, they’re an even more
essential element of these societies than they were before.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What does the professor say about

the word potlatch?

Narrator:

Question 2: What was the most common gift at a

potlatch?

Narrator:

Question 3: What purpose did seal oil serve at a

potlatch?

Narrator:

Question 4: What does Professor Burke imply

about the photograph of a potlatch taken in 1900?

Narrator:

Question 5: What does Professor Burke say about

the Kwakiutl tribe?

Narrator:

Question 6: What does Professor Burke say about

potlatch ceremonies held today?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a space science class.

Professor:

As I said at the end of our class on Tuesday,

today I’m going to talk about a growing problem in the sky.
You can call it . . . call it space junk, space debris, orbital lit-
ter, whatever you like—it’s basically the leftovers from the
thousands of satellites and spacecraft that have been sent
into orbit over the last fifty years or so.

The problem started back in the late 1950’s. The Soviet

Union launched the first satellite—Sputnik, it was called—
in 1957. And that’s, that’s when a tracking network was first
set up, too, to monitor bodies in orbit. Today, there’s a
worldwide network of 21 telescopes and radar stations
called the, umm, the Space Surveillance Network, that
keeps track of all this stuff, all these items in space.

Almost every launch contributes to the problem, con-

tributes to the amount of junk up there circling the earth.
There are non-functioning satellites, food wrappers, an
astronaut’s glove, the lens cap from a camera, broken tools,
bags of unwashed uniforms. Luckily, most of this junk
burns up when it re-enters the atmosphere, just like little
meteors. And although old pieces fall out of the sky, new
pieces are launched. On average, there’s a net increase of
around 200 pieces per year.

Today there are around 13,000 pieces of . . . 13,000 sepa-

rate bodies that are monitored from Earth. And of those,
only about 400 are still active, still useful pieces of equip-
ment. Most of it is in what is called low-Earth orbit, within
. . . well, that’s defined as within 1,200 miles of the earth.
There are also about a thousand pieces in high orbit. It’s in
a very thin, very narrow ring, shaped like a bicycle tire,
about 22,000 miles above the Equator.

The, uh, Surveillance people can only monitor objects

bigger than about a baseball. There are probably, I’d say
about half a million pieces of debris that are just too small
to be monitored. Most of these small objects are tiny flecks
of paint or little pieces of metal, say around the size of a
grain of sand. Some orbital debris is huge—big as a bus!
The smallest pieces are not that dangerous, not usually.
When they hit a spacecraft, they only cause, oh, just some
surface damage. Several times outer windows on the space
shuttle have had to be replaced because of collisions with
micro-objects in space, but there was no real danger. And
the really big pieces—those are mostly empty booster rock-
ets or other rocket parts—they’re not necessarily all that
dangerous either. Why not? Because these large objects can
be detected by radar and so . . . so they can be avoided
fairly easily. Several times shuttles have had to maneuver to
avoid getting close to large pieces of debris. But it’s the
medium-sized pieces that represent the biggest danger.
These objects are so dangerous, of course, because of their
tremendous speed. They can be moving up to 12 miles per
second. That’s way faster than a bullet . . . your typical bul-
let doesn’t even travel 1 mile per second. If one of these fly-
ing pieces of debris—say, a lost screwdriver, or a piece of an
antenna that broke off a satellite—if one of these hit a
space shuttle or the International Space Station—it could
puncture the outer hull. Then what would happen? You’d
have de-pressurization—all of the air inside would rush out
into the vacuum of space, and then, you’d have a disaster
on your hands. So far—fortunately—there has never been a
major collision involving a manned spacecraft but . . . but

16 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 16

space debris has damaged the solar panels on an
unmanned communications satellite. And there, there have
also been some collisions of these pieces of debris them-
selves. In January of 2005, the engine from a Thor rocket
launched by the United States thirty years ago and a frag-
ment of a Chinese rocket that blew up five years ago met
over Antarctica. The event was recorded by a camera on a
surveillance satellite. The collision produced even more
pieces of space junk.

So, what can we do, what can be done about this prob-

lem? Well, a couple of years ago, space engineers came up
with an idea, a possible way to solve this, uh, this debris
problem. Here’s what they suggested. You build a “junk col-
lector,” a large cone or group of cones that fits on the front
of a spacecraft. The cone is full of sticky plastic fibers that
trap debris inside it. This invention is still in its conceptual
stage, but . . . there are two ways it might be used. You
could launch unmanned satellites equipped with these
devices and radar sensors and you could actively hunt
down dangerous pieces of space junk. Or you could put
one of these on the front of a manned spacecraft and use it
as a defensive shield. Oh, and another possible solution . . .
you could use laser guns, either on a space-based platform
or based here on earth, to shoot some of the smaller pieces
out of the sky. Okay, anyone have any questions for me?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 7: What happens to most pieces of

orbital debris?

Narrator:

Question 8: How many orbital bodies are being

monitored today?

Narrator:

Question 9: Why is it impossible to monitor most

pieces of orbital debris?

Narrator:

Question 10: Which of the following types of

orbital debris would not be particularly dangerous to astro-
nauts on a spacecraft?

Narrator:

Question 11: The professor describes a collision

in space between which of the following objects?

Narrator:

Question 12: What can be inferred about the col-

lector described in this portion of the talk?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a pharmacy class.

Professor:

Good morning, all. This is our last class before

the final, you know, and I told you I’d give you a little more
information about the test today, but . . . before I do that, I
want to talk about a different class of drugs. This term
we’ve been discussing, mmmm, different types of, of phar-
maceutical drugs. Today, though, I’d like to spend a little
time discussing another class of drugs. You could lump
them all together and call them herbal drugs or herbal
remedies.

Student:

Oh, I just read a magazine article about herbal

drugs. It said that herbal remedies were becoming more
and more popular.

Professor:

That’s probably true. I’ve heard that, oh, some-

thing like 12 million people in the United States use herbal
drugs and . . . worldwide—well, there are countries where
herbal remedies are as important . . . maybe even more
important than pharmaceutical drugs.

Student B:

So, Professor Findlay—why do you think—why

is it important for pharmacists to know about herbal medi-
cines? I mean, usually patients don’t get prescriptions and
come to pharmacists for herbal remedies, do they? They
just buy them at . . . I don’t know, health food stores and so
on, right?

Professor:

Well, there are several reasons, Thomas. For one

thing, pharmaceutical and herbal medicine have a lot . . .

they share a lot of history. I mean, think about it, at one
time all drugs came from herbs and other plants. At one
time, the “pharmacist” was just some guy, well, usually
some woman, who knew what herbs were helpful and
knew where to look for them. Also, a lot of pharmaceutical
drugs in use today, they, mmm, originally came from
herbal sources.

Student B:

Really? Which ones?

Professor:

Well, the most commonly taken drug of all—

good old aspirin—is one example. The active ingredient in
aspirin originally came from the bark of a tree—the white
willow tree. And anyone remember a drug we talked about
last month called digitalis?

Student A:

I do. It’s used to . . . to treat heart problems,

right?

Professor:

You’re correct. And digitalis originally came from

a plant called foxglove. Anyway, to introduce you to alter-
native medicine, I brought along some samples of plants
that are often used in herbal medicines. See this flower that
looks like a purple daisy?

Student A:

It’s a pretty little flower. What is it?

Professor:

Well, some people call it the herbal equivalent of

a flu shot. It’s called Echinacea.

Student A:

Oh, I read about that—doesn’t it work on the

immune system?

Professor:

Right. Well, lots of people think it does, anyhow.

It’s one of the most commonly taken herbal remedies. A lot
of people, when they feel a cold or the flu coming on, will
take Echinacea.

Student A:

What are those yellow flowers with the five

petals?

Professor:

Those are called St. John’s Wort. St. John’s Wort.

It’s used to reduce stress and for mild depression. Now,
here’s a plant you uh you might find of interest at this time
of year, with finals coming on. See this fan-shaped leaf? It’s
from the Ginkgo Biloba tree.

Student B:

What’s that one for?

Professor:

Ginkgo Biloba is thought to improve memory

and to help you be more alert, more focused.

Student A:

Is that right? Wow, we really should try some of

that! So, Professor, how do you . . . how do most people take
these drugs? Do they just . . . swallow them?

Professor:

I’d imagine the most common way to take them

is in powdered form—the leaves or flowers are crushed and
powdered and put in a capsule, and people swallow the
capsule. Another way . . . some people make tea from the
plants and drink the tea, although I’m told that most of
these herbs taste pretty nasty.

Student B:

Here’s what I don’t understand—why would

someone use herbal drugs when there are regular drugs,
pharmaceutical drugs that do the same thing?

Professor:

Well, Thomas, for one thing, a lot of herbal drugs

are a form of preventative medicine. In other words, people
tend to take these drugs to avoid getting sick. On the other
hand, most prescription drugs are used after someone gets
sick . . . I mean, to treat some specific problem. Then, for
another thing, people—a lot of people that use these drugs,
they think that herbs . . . that, umm, herbal remedies have
fewer side effects and are generally—well, safer than pre-
scription drugs.

Student B:

What do you think, Professor? Do you think

that’s true? Are they safer?

Professor:

Well, I’d have to say, not always. There are some

herbs I would never recommend, and then there are defi-
nitely some herbal drugs that some people—for example,
pregnant women, people with high blood pressure—these
folks should definitely not take these drugs.

Section 2 Guide to Listening 17

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 17

Student B:

But Professor, do you think they work? I mean,

are most herbal remedies as effective as prescription drugs?

Professor:

I don’t really have a simple answer for that ques-

tion, Thomas. I think that in some cases, they might be. But
not all that much research has been done on herbal drugs,
so there isn’t that much scientific proof.

Student A:

Why is that, Professor? Why no research?

Professor:

That’s easy. Because drug research, most of the

research done on drugs is done by pharmaceutical compa-
nies that hope to patent the drug and then to make a profit
on it. But, guess what, you can’t patent an herb, since, well,
since it’s a natural substance. So . . .

Student B:

Professor, as a pharmacist, would you recom-

mend . . . would you ever tell a patient to take herbal medi-
cine instead of a prescription drug?

Professor:

Mmm, well, I might, depending on the medical

situation, but there are several considerations. Patients
need to take a few precautions. First, they should be sure
that they get herbs from a reputable company, a depend-
able company, to make sure the herbs they are taking are
pure. They should also talk to their doctors and their phar-
macists—especially if they are taking any other drugs,
because there is always the possibility drugs and herbs . . .
well, there could be a serious drug-herb interaction. Finally,
I’d remind patients not to, not to expect miracles from
herbs. I mean, let’s face it, no herbal remedy can take the
place of exercise and a healthy diet.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 13: What point does Professor Findlay

make about the drugs aspirin and digitalis?

Narrator:

Question 14: According to Professor Findlay, why

do people generally take the herbal remedy Echinacea?

Narrator:

Question 15: Which of the following is the best

description of St. John’s Wort?

Narrator:

Question 16: What can be inferred from the pro-

fessor’s remarks about how most herbal medicines are
used?

Narrator:

Question 17: In what form are herbal remedies

most often taken?

Narrator:

Question 18: According to the professor, why has

research on herbal drugs been limited?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a U.S. history class.

Professor:

Good afternoon, class. Today I want to talk a lit-

tle about something that’s done more, I think, to shape the
landscape of the United States as it is today than, uh, well,
probably more that just about any other phenomenon: the
Interstate Highway System. The Interstate System has been
called the largest public works project in the history of the
country—maybe in the history of the world—and it’s defi-
nitely one of the world’s great engineering wonders. When
the, uh, the Century Highway in Los Angeles was com-
pleted in 1993, it marked the end—well, almost the end,
there were still some bits and pieces that weren’t finished—
but it effectively marked the end of a forty-year project that
cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Okay, let’s take a trip back in time; let’s go back to the

early part of the twentieth century. Let’s say you’ve just
bought a brand-new automobile—maybe a shiny new
Model A Ford. Here’s your problem: you can drive your car
around the city, but if you want to go from city to city, there
are no roads to speak of. When the weather is bad, well,
people joke about losing automobiles in the mud. In fact,
in many places, roads are probably worse than they were a
hundred years before. Anyone guess why? No? Okay,
remember a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how,

after the Civil War, the railroad became dominant, the
dominant form of transportation? Does that ring a bell? So,
what was one of the side effects of this? The roads meant
for horses, for carts, for carriages, these all fell into disre-
pair because—well, because passengers and goods all
moved by railroad. There was no reason to maintain roads.
Anyway, you’ve got these terrible roads, no way to . . . to get
from place to place, so what do you motorists do? You
organize, you form groups, and then you ask, you demand
that the government build roads. These groups of motorists
went by a lot of different names, depending on where they
were, but collectively, they were known as the Better Roads
Movement. And the government responded. It responded
slowly, but it responded. Roads were built, but it would be
years, many years before there was a comprehensive high-
way system.

Okay, let’s move ahead in time a few years. It’s 1919,

and a young army officer, whose name is Dwight David
Eisenhower, is ordered to lead a military convoy of trucks
and motorcycles across the country, from Washington, D.C.,
to San Francisco, California. He’s ordered to get there as
soon as possible. It takes him . . . you might find this hard to
believe, but it took him sixty-two days. Sixty-two days!

Okay, now it’s the 1930’s . . . the time of the Great

Depression, as I know you’ll remember, and there are mil-
lions of unemployed workers—millions—and President
Roosevelt puts some of them to work on public works proj-
ects. These projects include road building. In 1938, the first
“superhighway” opens. It’s called the Pennsylvania
Turnpike. You may have traveled on it yourself and not
found it . . . well, not found it all that exciting. However, at
the time it opened, it was known as “the dream road.” This
four-lane highway became a model for the highways of the
future.

So . . . after World War II, the United States really and

truly enters the automobile age. By 1950, there are over 50
million vehicles on the road. In 1954, Dwight David
Eisenhower—he’s the president of the United States by
now—he proposes a system of superhighways. This system
would basically connect all of the major cities in the United
States. Of course, Eisenhower has been interested in roads
for a long time. There were two events that . . . two major
events in his life that influenced the way he thinks about
highways. One is his wartime experience. He was com-
mander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II,
and he saw, uh, the advantage that the efficient German
autobahn system—the German superhighway system—he
saw the advantage this gave Germany during the war. The
other event? It’s that long, hard trip he took across the
country back in 1919.

So, in 1956 Congress passes the Federal Highway Act,

and the first section of the Interstate system is built in
Kansas—Eisenhower’s home state. The system is supposed
to be completed by 1972, but it’s not finished, as I said,
until the 1990’s.

The Interstate Highway System has had just a . . . just an

enormous impact on life in the United States. It’s created
millions of jobs. It’s provided an incredibly efficient system
for moving people and transporting goods around the
country—and because of that, it’s contributed to the
decline of the railroads. Because of the safety factors that
were built into the system, it’s probably saved thousands of
lives. It’s helped create the suburbs that surround every
U.S. city. Now, it’s true, there were suburbs before there
were Interstate highways, but the Interstate system has
helped accelerate their growth because . . . well, it’s just so
easy to travel from suburb to central city.

18 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 18

Now don’t get me wrong—not all the effects of this

superhighway system have been, well, positive, especially
in urban areas. There have been whole neighborhoods
destroyed to make way for roads. Just in Seattle, for exam-
ple, thousands of homes were destroyed to make way for
Interstate 5. Whole neighborhoods were . . . well, it was like
having a river, a concrete river, a river of traffic cut through
a neighborhood, or cut off from other neighborhoods.
There was opposition, there were protests. In Boston in
1966, an anti-highway group successfully blocked the
building of a highway called the Inner Belt. Another group
stopped the building of an Interstate highway through San
Francisco.

Still, for better or worse, the Interstate Highway System

has changed the face of the United States. And remember
that trip from Washington to San Francisco in 1919 that
took Eisenhower 62 days? Today, you can make that same
trip in just 72 hours!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 19: Which of the following caused the

decline of roads in the United States in the nineteenth
century?

Narrator:

Question 20: How long did it take Dwight David

Eisenhower to drive across the United States in 1919?

Narrator:

Question 21: According to the speaker, which of

these influenced the way President Eisenhower thought
about highways?

Narrator:

Question 22: When was the Interstate Highway

system originally supposed to have been completed?

Narrator:

Question 23: Which of the following is not given

as an effect of the Interstate Highway System?

Narrator:

Question 24: In which of these cities were

Interstate Highway projects blocked by protests?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion among students preparing

a presentation for an architecture class.

Student A:

Okay, so . . . the presentation on alternative

housing in Professor Maxwell’s class is going to be . . . what,
the 21st?

Student B:

Umm, let me check . . . no, it’s, uh, not until the

23rd. But we have to hand in a . . . a preliminary outline
next Tuesday.

Student C:

And this presentation counts for . . . I think it’s a

fourth of our grade, so we need to do a good job.

Student A:

Right. So, either of you do any research, or

decide what kind of housing we should talk about?

Student C:

Well, I . . . I looked at a couple of Web sites on

the Internet, and paged through some journals, but . . . I
didn’t really come up with much of anything. How about
you, Joyce?

Student B:

As a matter of fact, ummm, I have some . . . I

guess you could call it indirect experience with one type of
alternative housing. I think I told you my uncle owns a con-
struction company, and, okay, last year, he had these
clients, this couple come to him and say they wanted him
to help them build the kind of house called an earthship.
They showed him the plans and . . . at first he thought they
were nuts, but, well, he needed the business and so . . . he
helped them build the house, the earthship . . . and he
ended up thinking . . . well, he’s actually thinking of build-
ing an earthship for himself.

Student C:

An earthship! Huh! That sounds like . . . like

something from a science fiction movie!

Student B:

Yeah, I guess it does!

Student A:

So, uh, what’s so interesting about earthships?

Student B:

Well, for one thing, they’re made almost entirely

out of recycled materials. In fact, the main building materi-
als are old tires and aluminum cans. The outer walls consist
of used tires packed with soil. Then you take the aluminum
cans and tuck them between the tires and then . . .you
cover the walls with cement.

Student C:

You’re kidding. I mean, I . . . hate to say this but

. . . used tires, old cans, dirt, cement . . . . those aren’t the
most attractive building materials.

Student B:

I know, I know, they don’t sound that attractive,

not at all, but, uh, you can finish the interior, the inside of
the earthship any way you want. You can finish the walls
with plaster and paint them, or you can use wood panels
. . . I’ve seen pictures of the one my uncle built, and it’s full
of plants and art and, and believe me, it looks really nice.

Student A:

Well, Maxwell should love them—you know how

she feels about building with recycled materials . . .

Student B:

Yeah, but that’s not all . . . earthships are not

only made from recycled materials. They also use . . . very,
very little power. They generate their own electricity from
solar panels—these are up on the roof . . . and they use, uh,
passive solar heating to provide heat in the winter.

Student A:

Really? How do they do that?

Student B:

Well, earthships are basically shaped like the let-

ter U. The three walls made of tires are on the west, north,
and east sides. The open part of the U, which is on the
south side, is made of glass windows, and they’re . . . they’re
angled upward to catch the winter sunlight.

Student A:

Yeah, this definitely sounds like the kind of

house Maxwell would love.

Student C:

What about costs? How much does an earthship

cost?

Student B:

Well, you know . . . dirt, aluminum cans . . . a lot

of the materials are either free or almost free . . . and a lot of
times, the owners help build the houses themselves.
Earthships are a real bargain. My uncle’s clients got a small
“nest” for . . . well, I’m guessing, but it probably only cost
them about $40,000, not counting the land it was built on.

Student C:

Umm, what do you mean, a “nest?”

Student B:

Oh, that’s what . . . that’s the most basic form of

earthship, the smallest type. Course, you can spend a lot
more if you build a big, fancy one.

Student C:

Well, I vote we do our presentation on earth-

ships, then, since Joyce already knows a lot about them,
and they, uh, they sound pretty interesting to me too.

Student A:

I’ll go along with that. Like I say, I think Maxwell

will love them, and she’s the one who gives the grade.

Student C:

Joyce, if you can get me some plans, I bet I could

build a small model before we give our presentation.

Student B:

Well, detailed plans are pretty expensive, but I

can probably get you some photos of the earthship that my
uncle helped build.

Student C:

That’s probably all I’d need, as long as they show

the house from all sides . . .

Student A:

But would you have time to make a model

before the presentation?

Student C:

Oh, I’m sure I can. I can make a simple architec-

tural model of just about anything in a coupla days.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 25: How did Joyce get most of her infor-

mation about earthships?

Narrator:

Question 26: Which of these are not one of the

main building materials used to construct earthships?

Narrator:

Question 27: Which of the walls of an earthship is

made of glass?

Section 2 Guide to Listening 19

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 19

Narrator:

Question 28: What is meant by the term nest ?

Narrator:

Question 29: Why does Joyce call earthships “a

real bargain”?

Narrator:

Question 30: What will the students probably

bring to the presentation?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a political science class.

Professor:

Afternoon. How’s everyone today? Good. So,

we’ve spent the best part of the last couple weeks going
over the structure of the federal government . . . and talking
about the document that, that provides the basis for gov-
ernment structure, the U.S. Constitution. Today, as prom-
ised, we’re going to take a look at the structure of the states,
of the individual state governments in the United States.

There are two main types of government . . . two main

systems of governing in the world. Under the unitary sys-
tem, the national government, the central government has
a great deal of control over the regional and local govern-
ments. For example, the central government may com-
pletely control the budgets of the provinces, the states, the
departments, whatever the political subdivisions are called.
The national president may appoint the governors of these
regional units. Actually, most of the national governments
in the world are of this type: unitary. The other type, the
other system of government is the federal system. Under
this system, the constituent parts of the nation have a great
deal of power. Only about twenty-four, twenty-five nations
in the world are considered to have federal systems. The
oldest one of these is the United States.

The reason that the U.S. has a federal system . . . it’s

because of our history. Before independence, the thirteen
British colonies were ruled separately. People from the
colony of Virginia, for example, considered themselves
Virginians, really, not Americans. So then, after the
Revolutionary War, the former colonies . . . well, as you can
imagine, they each jealously guarded their own indepen-
dence. When the states signed the Constitution, they sur-
rendered some of their sovereign powers but . . . here’s the
thing: the Constitution says that, whatever powers are not
given directly to the federal government belong to the state
governments. So . . . compared to other countries . . . well,
there may be a few countries that have an equally decen-
tralized system . . . Switzerland comes to mind, the Swiss
states, they’re actually called cantons there, they have a
great deal of power, too . . . and so do the Canadian
provinces. But, if you look at other countries . . . France has
always had a very centralized system of government. Paris
has traditionally controlled everything. Now, this may be
becoming less true—there’s been some decentralization in
recent years—but still, it’s a unitary system. And if you look
at the United Kingdom, well, local governments there have
a fair amount of power, but . . . but there is nothing compa-
rable, really, to state governments. Britain is divided into
regions, but these regions have no real governments to
speak of. Again, maybe someday soon they will, but for
now, we’d have to consider the U.K.’s system of government
more or less a unitary system. So anyway, my point here is,
compared to most comparable political units around the
world, the U.S. states are pretty powerful.

What kind of powers do the states have? They collect

taxes . . . they regulate businesses that operate within the
state . . . they issue licenses, like drivers’ licenses, marriage
licenses . . . they build roads. What else? Well, they’re
involved in education. Mostly with higher education. All
the states operate a state university system. Elementary

schools, secondary schools, those are mostly controlled by
local school boards.

Now, as we said earlier, the structure of the federal gov-

ernment, the rules for operating the federal government,
these are determined by the U.S. Constitution. Likewise,
each state has its own constitution that determines its
structure. Massachusetts has the oldest constitution. In
fact, it’s older than the national constitution. Granted, it’s
been changed some since then, but it’s, it’s really the same
document that was adopted in 1780.

We said the federal government was divided into three

branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. Same is true of
the states. The chief of the executive branch is called the
governor, as you no doubt know. The governor—this is true
in all the states—is elected for a four-year term. In about
half the states, the governor can serve only two terms, in
about half he can serve as many as he wants. In one state—
Virginia—the governor can only serve one term.

The state legislatures serve the same purpose as the U.S.

Congress. Members of the legislature are elected. They
make laws, they set tax rates, and in all of the states except
Oregon, they can impeach—know what I mean, they can
throw out the governor. Like the U.S. Congress, state legis-
latures have a . . . a bicameral structure. This means they
are divided into two bodies, two houses. The upper house
is called the state senate, the lower house, well, it has dif-
ferent names, depending on what state you’re in . . . Oh,
and, uh, when I said every state has a bicameral legislature,
I should have said all but one of them do. Nebraska is the
exception, Nebraska is unique because it has only one
house . . . so its, it has a unicameral system . . . just one
house.

State supreme courts . . . those represent the judicial

branch . . . their job is to interpret the state constitution
. . . . just like the U.S. Supreme Court does . . . and to try
various cases. In some states, they are elected, in some
states they are appointed by the governor or the legislature.
In most states, they serve terms of 8 to 10 years, but in
Rhode Island, they’re appointed for life.

Next up . . . we’re going to take an in-depth look at the

structure of our own state government. I’m going to pass
out copies of the Ohio State Constitution in just a minute
but . . . anyone have any questions first?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 31: What does the professor say about

the unitary system of government?

Narrator:

Question 32: What does the professor say about

Switzerland?

Narrator:

Question 33: According to the professor, which of

the following is mainly responsible for primary and sec-
ondary education in the United States?

Narrator:

Question 34: Which of these states has the oldest

constitution?

Narrator:

Question 35: What is the maximum time that a

governor of Virginia can serve?

Narrator:

Question 36: What is unique about the state legis-

lature of Nebraska?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a dance class.

Professor:

Okay, everyone. We’ve been talking about tradi-

tional forms of dance. Today, umm, we’re going to shift our
attention to the islands of Hawaii, and the most famous
form of dance that’s associated with those beautiful islands.
Anyone know what that is? Laura?

Student A:

Oh, that’s an easy one—it’s the hula dance.

20 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 20

Professor:

Yeah, you’re right, it’s the hula—um, you don’t

have to say hula dance, actually, because the word hula
means dance in Hawaiian, in the Hawaiian language. Has
anyone ever seen this dance performed, or know anything
about it? James?

Student B:

Well, I’ve seen a coupla TV shows and movies

about Hawaii, and, um, it seems to me, that usually when
you see the hula, it’s done by women in long grass skirts.

Professor:

Laura?

Student A:

When I was a little kid, I . . . my parents took me

to Hawaii, and there were hula dancers who’d perform at
our hotel. I remember being fascinated by . . . by how
gracefully they moved their bodies and their hands.

Professor:

Yeah, and you know, those body movements and

gestures, they all have meaning. The dancers use these to
tell stories. But, uh, what I want to emphasize, really
emphasize, is the fact that the hula that’s performed today
for tourists, the one you see at hotels and cultural shows, is
very different from the traditional hula, the one that was
performed hundreds of years ago. Modern hula is called
hula auane. The old style, traditional hula, is called hula
kahiko.

Student A:

Hundreds of years ago . . . I didn’t realize it was

such an old dance!

Professor:

Yeah, and as a matter of fact, we don’t even know

exactly how old the hula is. We do know that when Captain
Cook visited the islands in the 1770’s—he was the first
European to go there . . . , he was allowed to see a hula on
the island of Kauai. He wrote in his journal how much he
enjoyed it. We also know that one of the queens of Hawaii
established a royal school of hula over 500 years ago. Back
then, both men and women took part in the dance. There
were two types of performers. There were young perform-
ers, called olapa, which means “graceful ones” in Hawaiian.
These were the dancers, the ones that actually performed
the dance. Then there were older performers called
h’oa-paa, which means “steady ones.” They chanted and
sang, and they also played musical instruments. Apparently
back then hula ceremonies could get quite wild! But all that
changed in 1820.

Student B:

Why? What happened then?

Professor:

That was the year that religious missionaries

came to Hawaii from the United States–from New England,
to be specific. They found the original form of the hula to
be a little . . . well, shocking, so they . . . they arranged to
have the hula completely banned for around fifty years.
Then, when it came back, it was a much tamer version, a
much more conservative dance—the hula auane.

Student B:

So, how was it different?

Professor:

Well, remember I told you that the hula tells sto-

ries through movements? In the old days, the hula . . . well,
probably the most important story was the story of how the
islands rose up out of the sea. Also, there were dances
about the . . . the Hawaiian gods and goddesses, especially
the goddess Laki, who was the special goddess of the hula.
Some dances told the stories of brave Hawaiian kings and
queens . . . stories of Hawaiian history. But, uh, in the mod-
ern version of the dance, the movements of the dance . . .
they usually represent some, uh, some natural phenome-
non such as palm trees swaying in the wind, or waves
crashing on the beach, or birds flying across the sky.

Student B:

Professor, what about the music for the hula?

It’s, uh, a lot of times you hear it played on the ukulele,
right? Has that always been true? Is the ukulele a traditional
instrument?

Professor:

No, no, not at all. There was a group of

Portuguese workers who came to Hawaii around 1870, and
they brought with them these small guitars that were com-
mon in Portugal back then. These little guitars eventually
evolved into ukuleles. By the way, in Hawaiian, the word
ukulele means “jumping flea.”

Student B:

Jumping flea? Yeah? Why did they call it that?

Professor:

Hmmmmm. Probably it was because . . . well, to

tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue. I’ll try to find out for
you, though.

Student A:

So . . . how did the hula . . . how did it get to be a

tourist attraction?

Professor:

In the 1950’s, tourism became a major industry

in Hawaii, and tourists wanted to see . . . to see samples of
“authentic” Hawaiian culture. Even though the modern
hula is . . . well, it’s not really an expression of Hawaiian
culture, not the way the traditional hula was, but then,
most tourists probably didn’t know the difference.

Student B:

Well, personally, I think it’s too bad that you can’t

see what the hula was like back in the old days. I’ll bet it
was a lot more interesting than what you see now.

Professor:

Yeah, I have to agree with you on that, but actu-

ally, you can. These days, there are several groups of
Hawaiian dancers that have gotten together to perform the
hula kahiko the way it was originally performed. In fact, I
have a video of one of their performances, and we’ll be tak-
ing a look at that next.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 37: What does the word hula mean in

the Hawaiian language?

Narrator:

Question 38: What fact about the hula does the

professor particularly emphasize?

Narrator:

Question 39: What roles did the h’oa-paa, or

“steady ones,” play in the performance of the hula?

Narrator:

Question 40: What did the New England mission-

aries do when they arrived in 1820?

Narrator:

Question 41: Which of the following would be the

most likely theme of a modern hula?

Narrator:

Question 42: What will the members of the class

do next?

[CD 3 Track 3]

Lesson 11: Purpose, Method, and Attitude
Questions

Sample Item 1

Narrator:

Listen to a part of a discussion from the Listening

Preview Test.

Professor:

Well, you see, Professor Longdell, he, he in fact

taught in the law school at Harvard, not in the business
school. So the case method first . . . it was first used to train
law students. Then, a couple of years after that, they started
using it at Columbia University, at the law school there. It
wasn’t until . . . when was it, probably about 1910, 1912,
something like that, it was used, first used at Harvard
Business School.

Student B:

Then, it’s used in other fields? Besides law and

business?

Professor:

Oh, sure, over the years, it’s been used in all sorts

of disciplines. For example, my wife, she teaches over at the
School of Education, she uses cases to train teachers.

Narrator:

Why does Professor Speed mention his wife?

Section 2 Guide to Listening 21

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 21

[CD 3 Track 4]

Sample Item 2

Narrator:

Listen to a part of a student presentation from an

astronomy class.

Student Presenter:

Well, uh, hi, everyone . . . Monday, we

heard Don tell us about the Sun, and, uh, Lisa talk about
Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun. My . . . my, uh,
report, what I’m talking about is the next planet, the sec-
ond planet, Venus. Okay, to start off, I’m going to tell you
what people, well, what they used to think about Venus.
First off, back in the really . . . in the really ancient days,
people thought Venus was a star, not a planet, and . . . well,
actually, you know how you can see Venus in the early
morning and in the evening? Well, so they thought it was
two stars, Phosphorus—that was the morning star . . . and,
uh, let’s see, Hesperus, the evening star. And then, once
they figured out it was just one planet, they named it Venus
after the goddess of love—I don’t really know why, though.

Narrator:

How does the speaker introduce the topic of

Venus?

[CD 3 Track 5]

Sample Item 3

Narrator:

Listen to part of a conversation from the

Listening Preview Test.

Student:

So that’s . . . so you don’t think that’s a very good

idea for a topic, then, I suppose . . .

Professor:

I didn’t say that . . . just because this theory

Narrator:

What is the professor’s attitude toward the topic

that the student wants to write about?

[CD 3 Track 6]

Exercise 11.1

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

So, Joan, your roommate told me that you had a

meeting with Dean Metzger this morning.

Student B:

Well, actually, it’s later this afternoon—I’m meet-

ing her at four today.

Student A:

How come?

Student B:

Well, I’m sure you’ve been hearing and reading

about the cuts in the university budget, right? Well, the
budget for the university debate team was really slashed. In
fact, it was cut more than in half. And it was already a bare-
bones budget! To tell you the truth, I don’t know if . . . well, I
don’t really think we’ll be able to keep debating.

Student A:

Really? So how do you . . . what does the debate

team spend its money on? The coach’s salary, or . . .

Student B:

No, as a matter of fact, my friend Kurt Wyndham

is our coach, and he volunteers his time. Kurt’s a graduate
student now, but when he was an undergrad, he was a
debater himself.

Student A:

So, then, how do you spend your money?

Student B:

Well, mostly, we spend it on travel expenses. We

take four or five trips a semester to other campuses, and we

need money for bus fares or gas money, hotel rooms,
meals, things like that.

Student A:

Well, I—I kinda hate to say this, but . . . would it

really be the end of the world if the debate team couldn’t
keep going? I mean, does anyone really care all that much
about debate?

Student B:

The people on the team do! Most of us have

been debating since high school, and it’s really important
to us. And you know, it can be really good career prepara-
tion. You learn research skills, you learn . . . well, to com-
municate . . . to think on your feet—you learn teamwork.
My father’s a lawyer, you know, and when he was in col-
lege—he went to college over in England—he was involved
in debate, and he says it was a wonderful way to train for
the courtroom. He’s the one who talked me into joining the
team.

Student A:

Well, I’m just saying . . . except for a few people

on the team . . . how does having a debate team really ben-
efit the university?

Student B:

Oh, don’t even get me started! For one thing,

there’s the whole matter of school tradition. I mean, did
you know that this school has had a debating team for over
a hundred years? And over the years, we’ve won a dozen or
more regional tournaments and a couple of national tour-
naments. Then there’s the prestige. We haven’t had a good
football or basketball team for . . . for years, but our debate
team is always one of the best in the region. A good debate
team attracts people who debated in high school, and
they’re always some of the top students. And you know, a
lot of famous people were on college debate teams . . .
President John F. Kennedy, for one, and . . .

Student A:

Okay, okay, you’ve sold me!

Student B:

And we’re not even asking for that much. It’s like

a, like a millionth of what the school spends on football
and basketball! I mean, I don’t have anything against sports
teams, but . . .

Student A:

Still, I can’t see why you’re going to talk to Dean

Metzger. She’s . . . she’s Dean of the School of Arts and
Sciences. She’s not in charge of the university budget.

Student B:

No, I know, you’re right. And we tried to get an

appointment with President Fisher, but his assistant kept
saying he was too busy right now and wasn’t able to meet
with us. So Kurt came up with the idea of our talking to
Dean Metzger. He said Dean Metzger is fair—she has that
reputation, anyway—and she’s, you know, willing to listen.
So, I don’t know, maybe if we can convince her, then she
can persuade President Fisher and the Board of
Chancellors not to cut our budget so much.

Student A:

Well, if anyone can convince her, you can! I’ll tell

you, though . . . if I were you, I’d keep trying to get a meet-
ing with President Fisher. Talking to Dean Metzger won’t
hurt, but really, President Fisher is the person whose mind
you have to change.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: Why does the woman mention her

father?

Narrator:

Question 2: How does the man feel about the

woman’s appointment with Dean Metzger?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

Hey, Julie, want to go see a movie tonight?

Student B:

Oh, wish I could, but I’m on my way home to

study. I have a mid-term in my math class tomorrow.

Student A:

How are your mid-terms going?

22 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 22

Student B:

So far, so good . . . the only one I’m at all worried

about is the math exam tomorrow. How about you? Don’t
you have any mid-term exams?

Student A:

As a matter of fact, I do have one in geology class

tomorrow, but there’s nothing I can do tonight to get ready
for it.

Student B:

What sort of test is it? Multiple-choice or essay?

Student A:

Neither, actually. Doctor Fowles gives us a min-

eral sample and we have an hour to figure out what it is—
we work in teams of two.

Student B:

How on earth do you do that? I mean, a rock’s a

rock, isn’t it?

Student A:

Actually, there are a number of tests you can

perform on minerals to, ah, figure out what they are. First
off, you just look carefully at the sample.

Student B:

Okay . . . what do you look for?

Student A:

Well, you check the mineral’s color . . . although

that’s one of the most unreliable tests.

Student B:

Why? Why would that be unreliable?

Student A:

Because a lot of minerals have impurities that

change their color. For example, pure quartz is clear, but
then you also have white quartz, rose quartz, smoky
quartz—it’s all the same, the same mineral, but different
colors. Another thing to look for is luster . . .

Student B:

You mean, how shiny it is?

Student A:

That’s right. The way light reflects off the min-

eral. Most minerals that contain metals tend to have a
shiny, metallic luster. Non-metallic rocks often look dull.
Then, you can do a taste test . . .

Student B:

Ewww, yuck! I wouldn’t taste a mineral sample!

Who knows where that mineral sample has been!

Student A:

Well, it can help you identify certain minerals—

for example, halite has a salty taste. Probably the most use-
ful test of all is the hardness test. Have you ever heard of
the Mohs scale?

Student B:

Huh? The what scale?

Student A:

It’s a scale that indicates how hard a mineral is.

We have a kit that we use that contains samples of miner-
als, of known minerals that, ah, have a certain hardness. It
goes from talc at number 1—talc is so soft you can scratch
it with your fingernail—to diamonds at number 10.
Diamonds are the hardest . . .

Student B:

I know, I know, they’re the hardest substance in

the world. Do you actually have a diamond in your kit?

Student A:

Yeah, sure, a tiny little industrial diamond. So,

let’s say you can scratch your sample with fluorite, which is
number 4 on the scale, but not with, umm, gypsum, that’s
number 2, then on the Mohs scale, you, ah . . .

Student B:

Then the sample must be about 3 on that scale,

right?

Student A:

Right! So you look on the list that comes with the

kit and you know it’s one of those minerals that is about 3
on the scale. Another good test is the streak test, which tells
you the true color of a mineral . . .

Student B:

I thought you said color is unreliable . . .

Student A:

Uh, right, I did, but, ah, see, the streak test shows

you the true color of the mineral. You take your sample and
rub it against a piece of unglazed porcelain, okay, and look
at the color of the streak on the porcelain. Remember all
those different colors of quartz I mentioned? Well, if you do
a streak test on those, the streak on the porcelain looks the
same, no matter what color the mineral appears to be. Oh,
and my favorite is the acid test. You pour a little bit of acid,
of vinegar, say, on the sample, and, sometimes, with a cer-
tain kind of mineral, one that contains calcium, it fizzes
and foams. It’s really cool. And then there’s the specific

gravity test, the ultraviolet test—that one’s kinda fun too—
oh, and the blowpipe test, and then . . . .

Student B:

Wait, stop, I get the picture! And after . . . after

you’ve done all these tests, you can identify any mineral?

Student A:

Well, usually . . . not always, but usually. My

partner and I have done a couple of practice runs, and we
didn’t have any trouble figuring out what mineral we were
looking at. So, I’m pretty sure we can do the same
tomorrow.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 3: How does the man explain his geol-

ogy mid-term exam to the woman?

Narrator:

Question 4: What is the woman’s attitude towards

the taste test?

Narrator:

Question 5: Why does the man mention quartz?

Narrator:

Question 6: What is the man’s attitude toward his

geology mid-term?

[CD 4 Track 2]

Exercise 11.2

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a U.S. history class.

Professor:

Morning, everyone. We’ve been discussing the

Civil War for the last coupla weeks . . . talking about some
of the major battles of the war. So today, I’ve, uh, invited a
guest to come to our class. I’d like all of you to meet Ms.
Frances Adams. She’s the state coordinator of the Civil
War Heritage Society, which is involved in preserving
battlefields all over the eastern part of the country.
Ms. Adams . . . .

Guest Speaker:

Thank you, Professor Nugent, thanks for

inviting me. I always appreciate the chance to talk to stu-
dents . . . to anyone who’ll listen, for that matter . . . about
our disappearing battlefields. The organization I work with
is trying to save battlefields from development. It’s an
uphill struggle. By one estimate, twenty-five acres of Civil
War battlefield are being lost every day. That’s like an acre
an hour. In fact, we’re trying to save one battlefield right
here in our state . . . you may have read about it in the
newspapers. There’s a site, oh, only about 100 miles from
here called Ivy Station where a small battle was fought in
the closing days of the war, in 1864. A development com-
pany wants to build a 300-unit apartment complex where
that battle was fought and we—the Society, that is—we’re
trying to stop them.

Student A:

Ms. Adams, I understood . . . I mean, I always

assumed, I guess, that battlefields are protected by the
government. A few years ago, I went with my family to the
battlefield at Gettysburg, and it seemed pretty well pro-
tected to me.

Guest Speaker:

You’re right, the Gettysburg battlefield is

well protected. After all, Gettysburg was the largest battle of
the whole war, and so . . . well, the sites of most important
battles—Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, Vicksburg—they’re
all national historical sites, and they’re under the protec-
tion of the National Park Service. But, have you ever heard
of, oh, say the Battle of Salt Run in Virginia?

Student A:

Ummm, no.

Guest Speaker:

Well, that’s not too surprising, as it wasn’t a

turning-point battle, but . . . it involved several thousand
Union and Confederate troops . . . Okay, now when I came
in I put one of our society’s brochures on each of your
desks. I want to show you . . . just take a look at the cover of
the brochure. What do you see?

Student B:

Ummm, a shopping mall?

Section 2 Guide to Listening 23

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 23

Guest Speaker:

Right. It’s called the Salt Run Mall. And it’s

located right . . . right smack in the middle of what was the
Salt Run battlefield. Now, take a look inside the brochure.
There’s a list of almost 400 Civil War battlefields. As you see,
these are classified in, uh, one of three ways. Do you see
what I mean? They’re classified as “Adequately Protected,”
“At Risk,” or “Lost to Development.” Only about 70 are
Adequately Protected. About 180 are endangered. You’ll
find the Ivy Station battlefield on this list. Then there are
150 that have already been developed, that are completely
gone. The Salt Run battlefield is on this list, you’ll notice.

Professor:

David, I see you have a question for Ms. Adams.

Student B:

Thanks, Professor. Yeah, Ms. Adams, I’m just

wondering—is your organization—is it made up of
re-enactors?

Guest Speaker:

Of re-enactors? No, not at all. I mean, a few

members of the Society may be involved in re-enactment,
but not many . . .

Student B:

I read somewhere that most of the, ah, pressure

to save Civil War battlefields, that it comes from re-enactors.

Student A:

Hold on! What are . . . who are . . . re-enactors?

Student B:

They’re people who pretend the Civil War is still

going on . . .

Guest Speaker:

Well . . . I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say

that, but . . . they’re people who enjoy . . . re-enacting, re-
living the Civil War experience. They wear the uniforms of
the northern and the southern soldiers—some of them
have equipment and wear uniforms that are amazingly
authentic—and they . . . well, they fight Civil War battles all
over again. Without real bullets, of course. And naturally,
they prefer to stage these, umm, re-enactments on authen-
tic—on the actual battlefields where the original battle took
place.

Student A:

So they’re interested in the same thing you are,

right?

Guest Speaker:

Well, yes, their goals and ours certainly

overlap. Now, personally, I have no interest in spending my
weekends dressed up as a Civil War nurse and sleeping in a
tent on a battlefield. My interest, the Society’s interest, is to
preserve these battlefields as places of historical . . . of cul-
tural significance. But . . . several of the re-enactment
organizations are . . . well, I guess you’d call them our allies
. . . yeah, our allies in the fight to save these sites.

Student B:

I’m just wondering why it’s necessary to save all

these sites. The big battlefields, sure, but . . . some of these
sites are . . . . well, they weren’t all that important to the way
the war turned out, and, well—they may have been in the
middle of nowhere during the Civil War, but now they’re on
some pretty valuable suburban real estate, and hey, they’re
privately owned. Can’t we just read about these little battles
in history books?

Professor:

I’m going to jump in here, Frances, and com-

ment on what David just said. Geography and . . . topogra-
phy shape a battle. The patterns of uh, hills, valleys, rocks,
rivers, streams . . . these are all important. And if future his-
torians, military historians, if they don’t have access to
these battlefields, they won’t be able to understand what
really happened back in the 1860’s.

Guest Speaker:

And I’d just like to add . . . for those of us

who are non-historians, who are not professional histori-
ans, well, I think it is important for us, too, that these sites
be preserved. If you walk around on a Civil War battlefield,
and you imagine what happened there, well, you have an
emotional, um, connection, an emotional empathy with
those who fought there. You can’t get that walking around a
parking lot! And also, well, I think we owe those soldiers,

the ones who fought and died in these places, I think we
owe them a measure of respect for their courage. For their
sacrifices. No matter how unimportant the battle was to the
outcome of the war.

Student A:

So, what does your society do, Ms. Adams, to

save battlefields?

Guest Speaker:

Well, one of the things we do is what I’m

doing today—making people like you aware, educating
people about the, uh, the problem of disappearing battle-
fields. And then, as I said, we work with other groups—re-
enactment groups and historical societies and so forth—to
coordinate our efforts. We meet with government offi-
cials—state, local, federal—and try to persuade them to
buy battlefield land in order to preserve it. And, when we
can afford it, we buy up land ourselves and keep it free of
commercial or industrial development. The Society owns
and maintains about 3,000 acres of battlefield land in seven
states.

Student B:

Well, I’m still of the opinion that . . . that you can’t

really stop progress. Sometimes you shouldn’t even try.

Professor:

Well, David, you’re certainly entitled to your

opinion. But I . . . I can’t imagine giving up our own her-
itage, our own history without a fight. Anyway, if any of you
are interested in joining the Society and helping preserve
these sites, personally, I think it’s a wonderful idea. I’ve
been a member myself for about five years.

Guest Speaker:

Inside the brochure I gave you, there’s a

form you can fill out, if you’re interested in joining. There’s
a special membership for students that’s not as expensive
as a regular membership.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: Why does Ms. Adams mention the

battle of Ivy Station?

Narrator:

Question 2: How does Ms. Adams make the class

aware of the current condition of the Salt Run battlefield?

Narrator:

Question 3: What is Ms. Adams’ attitude toward

re-enactors?

Narrator:

Question 4: What is David’s attitude toward the

preservation of Civil War battlefields?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an American Literature

class.

Professor:

Okay, for the last few minutes of class, I’d like to

introduce you to the poet Emily Dickinson. A couple of
days ago, we were talking about the poet Walt Whitman,
and if you recall, I said that he was one of the two great
voices in American poetry in the nineteenth century. Today,
I’m going to drop the other shoe and talk about the other
great poet, Emily Dickinson.

The poetry of Emily Dickinson and the poetry of Walt

Whitman couldn’t have been more different, as we’ll see.
Dickinson claimed that she never . . . never even read
Whitman’s poems. And their lifestyles . . . again, couldn’t
have been more different. But they were both innovators,
important innovators, and they both had a major role in
shaping American poetry.

I said Monday that Whitman became famous all over the

country and in Europe as well. He was really the first
American poet who was read much outside the United
States. Dickinson was well known only in her own small
town—in those days, it was just a village—Amherst,
Massachusetts. But she wasn’t known there for her poetry.
Oh, no! She was known for her . . . her odd, her mysterious
ways. You see, after she finished high school she went to
the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary—today, it, uh, it’s

24 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 24

called Mount Holyoke College—but she only went there for
one year. She didn’t get along with the headmistress, appar-
ently. After that, she returned to her father’s house in
Amherst—and she hardly ever left. In fact, she hardly left
her own bedroom. And when she did leave the house, she
always wore white dresses like a bride. Outside of her fam-
ily, her only person-to-person contact with others was with
the children who lived in her neighborhood. This, uh, may
not seem all that odd to us today, but . . . in Amherst,
Massachusetts, in the 1800’s, this was considered . . . well,
pretty strange behavior.

For a woman who lived such an uneventful life—at least,

her life was uneventful on the surface—she wrote amaz-
ingly perceptive poems about nature, love, and death. Her
poems are all quite short and are all untitled. What I like
about them the most is their economy. She was able to say
so much, to express so much in so few words. She was an
extremely prolific poet. Just in one year alone, 1874—that
was the year her father died—she wrote, like, 200 poems.
But she never wanted her poems to be published. Well, she
did engage in a kind of self-publishing. She assembled col-
lections of her poems in packets that were called “fasci-
cles,” which she bound herself with needle and thread.
There were some forty of these booklets. But she never
tried to have these . . . these fascicles published, seldom
even showed them to anyone else. She did send a few of
her poems to friends and relatives, and somehow, six or
seven of these found their way into print in magazines or
newspapers during her lifetime. You can imagine, though,
how she felt when she heard that her poems had been
published.

After Emily Dickinson died in 1886, her family discov-

ered that she had written over 1,700 poems. Her sister
Lavinia edited three volumes of Emily’s poetry. They were
popular as soon as they were published, but it was not until
the twentieth century that critics recognized her as one of
the top American poets. Martha Dickinson Bianchi, the
poet’s niece, brought out several more books of poems in
the early 1900’s. Eventually all of them appeared in print. In
1950, Harvard University bought all of her manuscripts and
acquired the publishing rights to all of her poems. Harvard
published a complete three-volume collection of her
poems and letters five years later.

Okay, for Friday, I’d like you to read all of Dickinson’s

poems that are in our textbook. There are about twenty,
maybe twenty-five of her poems in there. Don’t worry,
though. That may sound like a lot of reading, but it
shouldn’t take you long! Friday, we’ll take a closer look at
her poems.

Before we move on to another topic, I’d just like to say

this: These days, a lot of scholars downplay Dickinson’s,
um, eccentric lifestyle. They point out that she was not as
intellectually cut off as people used to think, that she had a
lively relationship with others through her letters—and that
she was quite learned about other writers, such as John
Keats and John Ruskin. But, there’s no doubt that she lived
in relative isolation and that she did not want to be in the
public eye. I’m going to leave you with the first verse of one
of her most famous poems:

I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 5: Why does the professor mention the

poet Walt Whitman?

Narrator:

Question 6: Why does the professor mention

Harvard University?

Narrator:

Question 7: Which of the following best summa-

rizes the professor’s attitude toward Emily Dickinson?

Narrator:

Question 8: How does the professor conclude her

discussion of Emily Dickinson?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an art history class.

Professor:

Morning. Today I’m going to take a few minutes

to talk about folk art. I, uh, know this isn’t on your syllabus,
but I saw a wonderful exhibit of folk art from the eigh-
teenth and nineteenth century at the Hotchkiss Museum
over the weekend, and I’d like to share my impressions of
this exhibit with you.

First off, I should tell you that there’s, umm, some dis-

agreement in the art world about what is meant by the
term folk art. European folklorists, in particular, take the
position that folk art must be part of a . . . of some long-
standing artistic tradition. They say it must have been cre-
ated by artists from a distinct group, say, oh, American
Indians, Australian aborigines—or that it must have been
made by people from some particular occupation—say, uh,
sailors on whaling ships. These European folklorists would
generally not say . . . . they wouldn’t categorize pieces made
for commercial reasons as folk art. They would also, um,
disqualify pieces made by groups, not by individuals.

Folklorists in the United States, though—not just folk-

lorists, also museums and galleries—don’t take such a nar-
row view—and I must say, I think the European way of
looking at folk art is way too restrictive. Among most
American folklorists . . . well, they define a folk artist as
simply someone who . . . someone who creates art without
any formal artistic training. And, uh, in the catalogue for
this exhibit, there’s a little essay written by the curator of
the Hotchkiss, and he says, “A folk artist is someone who
would be surprised to find his or her pieces on display in a
museum.” That’s a definition I like! Anyway, lots of pieces
on display at the museum would probably be considered
crafts by European folklorists. Some pieces were made by
groups, some were even made in factories—for example,
the wooden animals for carousels.

The exhibit features lots of different kinds of folk art.

There are paintings—portraits and landscapes—that were
created to be works of art. But most of the pieces have
some utilitarian, some commercial purpose. There’s furni-
ture, plates and pots, clothing, clocks. There are ships’ fig-
ureheads, circus carvings, duck decoys, fish lures . . . lots of
weathervanes. Then there’s a wonderful collection of trade
signs. You know what I mean, doncha? Signs advertising
shops, taverns, hotels, restaurants . . . As a matter of fact, I
spent most of my time at the exhibit looking at trade signs.
I found them just fascinating . . . charming.

Now, here’s something to keep in mind. It wasn’t until

1870 that most people in America could read. Signs had to
appeal to both readers and non-readers. Sometimes the
shape of the sign told you what kind of business was inside.
There’s a sign in the shape of a tea kettle that was once in
front of a tea shop in Boston . . . a sign in the shape of a
pocket watch that was in front of a jeweler’s shop . . . a
boot-shaped sign from a shoe store—you didn’t have to be
literate to understand these. More often, there were
painted images . . . a sign for a blacksmith shop featured a
picture of a horseshoe . . . a bookshop sign showed a pic-
ture of a man reading a book . . . well, you get the idea.

Section 2 Guide to Listening 25

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 25

Sometimes the images weren’t so . . . so obvious. For exam-
ple, there were signs that pictured an American Indian, a
Turkish sultan, a, let’s see, an exotic Cuban lady, and a race-
track gambler. All of these images symbolized the same
kind of shop . . . tobacco shops. At the time, people
instantly recognized these symbols. Maybe they couldn’t
read, but they had what’s called visual literacy. Visual liter-
acy. These symbols were as meaningful to them . . . well,
just like today, we know we can get hamburgers and French
fries when we see golden arches . . . it was the same sort of
thing.

Sometimes signs contained political messages. There

was an inn in Philadelphia called King’s Inn, and its sign
showed a picture of King George III on a horse. Well, this
was just before the Revolutionary War and George III wasn’t
too popular with the colonists . . . they weren’t real fond of
him. So, the king is pictured on this sign as a clumsy fool
practically falling off his horse.

Oh, another thing to keep in mind: back in Colonial

times, many streets didn’t have names, and most buildings
didn’t have numbers . . . street addresses. Trade signs
served as landmarks. People would say, “Meet me by the
sign of the Lion and the Eagle,” or “by the sign of the
Dancing Bear” . . .

If you go to the exhibit and you look at the trade signs,

you’ll notice that there are almost no plaques that tell you
who painted the signs. There are maybe three, four signed
pieces in the show—the sign-painter William Rice of
Hartford, Connecticut was one of the few who signed his
work. A few of the signs in the exhibit were done by fairly
well-known portrait artists . . . Horace Bundy, Rufus
Hathaway, who made signs for extra money. Their styles are
distinctive, and the signs they made can be easily identi-
fied. But most of the sign painters . . . they were mostly
itinerant artists, traveling from town to town on horseback,
painting a few signs in each town . . . anyway, their names
have been long forgotten.

Well, I want to get back to our discussion of Renaissance

art, but I do hope all of you get a chance to see the exhibit
at the Hotchkiss . . . it will be there another six weeks.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 9: How does the professor introduce his

discussion of folk art?

Narrator:

Question 10: Why does the professor mention

wooden carousel horses?

Narrator:

Question 11: How does the professor explain the

concept of “visual literacy”?

Narrator:

Question 12: Why does the professor mention the

sign for the King’s Inn?

Narrator:

Question 13: Why does the professor mention the

sign painter William Rice?

[CD 4 Track 3]

Lesson 12: Replay Questions

Narrator:

Listen to the following short conversations. Pay

special attention to the way the phrase “I’m sorry” is used.

Conversation Number 1

Professor:

You know, Donald, that’s the, uh, the second

or third time you’ve turned in an assignment after the
due date.

Student:

I know, Professor Dorn, and I’m sorry, I really am. I

won’t . . . I’ll try not to let it happen again.

Conversation Number 2

Professor:

Next, I want to talk about a process that’s impor-

tant, that’s of central importance to all living things . . . to
all living things that breathe oxygen, anyway. That’s the
Krebs cycle.

Student:

I’m sorry, Professor, the what cycle?

Conversation Number 3

Student A:

Hey, Laura, you wanna go skiing up at Snowbury

this weekend with my roommate and me?

Student B:

I’m sorry, I wish I could, but I’ve gotta hit the

books this weekend. I have a big test in my calculus class
on Monday.

Conversation Number 4

Employee:

University Recreation Center, Jill speaking.

Student:

Yeah, hi, I’m calling to reserve a tennis court on

Friday morning at 6:30

Employee:

At 6:30 in the morning? I’m sorry, but we don’t

even open until 7:30.

[CD 4 Track 4]

Sample Item

Narrator:

Why does the speaker say this:

Professor:

This sub-zone—well, if you like variety, you’re

not going to feel happy here. You can travel for miles and
see only half a dozen species of trees. In a few days, we’ll be
talking about the tropical rain forest; now that’s where
you’ll see variety.

[CD 4 Track 5]

Exercise 12.1

Narrator:

Number 1

Student A:

Oh, that statistics course I’m taking is just loads

of fun!

Student B:

Didn’t I tell you it would be?

Narrator:

Number 2

Student A:

So did you and your lab partner get together and

write up your experiment?

Student B:

No, and wait till you hear his latest excuse. You’re

going to love it!

Narrator:

Number 3

Student A:

Does Professor White ever change his grades?

Student B:

Oh, sure, about once a century!

Narrator:

Number 4

Student A:

Did you know Greg has changed his major?

Student B:

Oh, no, not again.

Narrator:

Number 5

Student A:

So, you’re moving out of your apartment?

Student B:

Yeah, I got a place closer to campus. I just hope

the landlady here gives me all of my security deposit back.

Student A:

Well, you’d better leave the place spic-and-span.

Narrator:

Number 6

Student A:

Doctor Stansfield, I’ve decided to drop my physi-

ology class. It just meets too early in the morning for me.

Professor:

Do you really think that’s a good reason, Mark?

26 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 26

Narrator:

Number 7

Student:

Professor McKee, I know you speak Spanish. I

wonder if you could translate this poem for me?

Professor:

Let me have a look. Hmmm. Well, I’m afraid this

is written in Catalan, not Spanish.

Narrator:

Number 8

Professor:

Next, next we’ll be taking a look at Japanese the-

ater. Kabuki Theater and, uh, Noh Theater . . .

Student:

Professor, could you, uh, put those terms on the

board?

Narrator:

Number 9

Professor:

Today we were going to uh, continue to . . . con-

tinue our discussion of complex numbers. In our last class,
we spent quite a bit of time talking about imaginary num-
bers, but, uh, I must say, I noticed a few . . . a few puzzled
expressions as you filed out. Part of the problem, I think, is
the name imaginary numbers. They are not imaginary, they
are as real as any other kind of number. So, here’s the thing,
we really can’t go on to complex numbers until we get this
right . . .

Narrator:

Number 10

Professor:

So, who can tell me who wrote the Brandenburg

Concertos?

Student:

I think . . . umm, was it Bach?

Narrator:

Number 11

Professor:

Okay, well, uh, I’ve been digressing . . . no more

about my childhood experiments with rockets!

Narrator:

Number 12

Professor:

Now, I know I didn’t give you a set number . . . a

maximum number of words or pages for your term paper
. . . I only said it had to be more than ten pages. I didn’t
really want to discourage anyone from fully exploring the
topic you chose. But, uh, I must say, some of these were
well, almost ridiculous!

[CD 4 Track 6]

Exercise 12.2

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student:

Oh, well, then, . . . maybe I should, uh, maybe I

should go back to my dorm and get some dinner . . . before
I sit down and read this.

Librarian:

That’s fine, but . . . I can’t guarantee the article

will be available right away when you come back . . . some
other student from your class might be using it.

Student:

Well, I dunno, I, I guess I’ll just have to take my

chances . . .

Narrator:

Question 1: What does the woman mean when

she says this:

Student:

I guess I’ll just have to take my chances . . .

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

So, uh, how was it . . . I mean, was it a good dig?

Student B:

Do you mean, did we find any artifacts? No, it . . .

it was supposed to be a very . . . promising site. But it
turned out to be a complete bust! We didn’t find anything
. . . not even one single piece of broken pottery. Nothing!
Just sand!

Narrator:

Question 2: What does the woman mean when

she says this:

Student B:

But it turned out to be a complete bust!

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student B:

You just walk a little bit farther, and you’ll see

the art building . . . the Reynolds Building. You can’t miss it
because there’s a big metal . . . thing on a platform right in
front of it.

Student A:

A thing?

Student B:

Yeah, there’s this . . . this big rusty piece of

abstract “art.” I guess you’d call it art. Anyway, it’s right in
front of the doorway.

Narrator:

Question 3: What does the woman imply when

she says this:

Student B:

Yeah, there’s this . . . this big rusty piece of

abstract “art.” I guess you’d call it art. Anyway, it’s right in
front of the doorway.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student B:

Your sister’s an artist?

Student A:

Yeah, she’s a painter. She also, well she just

Narrator:

Question 4: What does the man mean when he

says this:

Student A:

I think the way her students paint has sort of

rubbed off on her.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student B:

Hmmm, so, what . . . what other kinds of courses

do they offer?

Student A:

Well, I don’t know all the courses they offer, but I

know they have a class on test-taking skills.

Student B:

Wow, that’s right up my alley.

Narrator:

Question 5: What does the man mean when he

says this:

Student B:

. . . that’s right up my alley.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student:

So, suppose I decide I want to . . . to apply for an

R.A. position, what, uh, what would I need to do?

Administrator:

I can give you a form to fill out. You’d also

need to get two letters of recommendation . . .

Narrator:

Question 6: What does the man imply when he

says this:

Student:

So, suppose I decide I want to . . . to apply for an

R.A. position?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

So then, how do you spend your money?

Student B:

Well, mostly, we spend it on travel expenses. We

take four or five trips a semester to other campuses and we
need money for bus fares or gas money, hotel rooms,
meals, things like that.

Student A:

Well I—I kinda hate to say this, but . . . would it

really be the end of the world if the debate team couldn’t
keep going?

Narrator:

Question 7: What does the man mean when he

says this:

Student A:

Well, I—I kinda hate to say this . . .

Section 2 Guide to Listening 27

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 27

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Well, I’m just saying . . . except for a few people

on the team . . . how does having a debate team really ben-
efit the university?

Student B:

Oh, don’t even get me started! For one thing,

there’s the whole matter of school tradition. I mean, did
you know that this school has had a debating team for over
a hundred years? And over the years, we’ve won a dozen or
more regional tournaments and a couple of national tour-
naments. Then there’s the prestige. We haven’t had a good
football or basketball team for . . . for years, but our debate
team is always one of the best in the region. A good debate
team attracts people who debated in high school, and
they’re always some of the top students. And you know, a
lot of famous people were on college debate teams . . .
President John F. Kennedy, for one, and . . .

Narrator:

Question 8: What does the woman mean when

she says this:

Student B:

Oh, don’t even get me started!

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Well, I’m just saying . . . except for a few people

on the team . . . how does having a debate team really ben-
efit the university?

Student B:

Oh, don’t even get me started! For one thing,

there’s the whole matter of school tradition. I mean, did
you know that this school has had a debating team for over
a hundred years? And over the years, we’ve won a dozen or
more regional tournaments and a couple of national tour-
naments. Then there’s the prestige. We haven’t had a good
football or basketball team for . . . for years, but our debate
team is always one of the best in the region. A good debate
team attracts people who debated in high school, and
they’re always some of the top students. And you know, a
lot of famous people were on college debate teams . . .
President John F. Kennedy, for one, and . . .

Student A:

Okay, okay, you’ve sold me!

Narrator:

Question 9: What does the man mean when he

says this:

Student A:

Okay, okay, you’ve sold me!

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student B:

What sort of test is it? Multiple-choice or essay?

Student A:

Neither, actually. Doctor Fowles gives us a min-

eral sample and we have an hour to figure out what it is—
we work in teams of two.

Student B:

How on earth do you do that? I mean, a rock’s a

rock, isn’t it?

Narrator:

Question 10: Why does the woman say this:

Student B:

How on earth do you do that? I mean, a rock’s a

rock, isn’t it?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Probably the most useful test of all is the hard-

ness test. Have you ever heard of the Mohs scale?

Student B:

Huh? The what scale?

Narrator:

Question 11: What does the woman mean when

she says this:

Student B:

Huh? The what scale?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Another good test is the streak test, which tells

you the true color of a mineral . . .

Student B:

I thought you said color is unreliable . . .

Student A:

Uh, right, I did, but, ah, see, the streak test shows

you the true color of the mineral.

Narrator:

Question 12: What does the man mean when he

says this:

Student A:

Uh, right, I did, but, ah, see, the streak test shows

you the true color of the mineral.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

And then there’s the specific gravity test, the

ultraviolet test, that one’s kinda fun too . . . oh, and the
blowpipe test, and then . . . .

Student B:

Wait, stop, I get the picture! And after . . . after

you’ve done all these tests, you can identify any mineral?

Narrator:

Question 13: Why does the woman say this:

Student B:

Wait, stop, I get the picture!

[CD 4 Track 7]

Exercise 12.3

Narrator:

Listen again to the professor’s comment. Then

answer the question.

Professor:

First, I just want to say . . . good job on your

presentation, Charlie, it was very interesting, and then . . .
well, I just want to add this. You said you weren’t sure why
the planet Venus was named after the goddess of love. It’s
true Venus was the goddess of love, but she was also the
goddess of beauty and, well, anyone who’s ever seen Venus
early in the morning or in the evening knows it’s a beautiful
sight.

Narrator:

Question 1: Why does the professor say this:

Professor:

. . . well, I just want to add this.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

Computers have been used since the sixties to

record choreography. The first one—well, the first one I
know about, anyway, was a program written by Michael
Noll . . . and it was . . . Oh, I guess by today’s standards
you’d say it was pretty primitive. The dancers looked like
stick figures in a child’s drawing.

Narrator:

Question 2: What does the woman mean when

she says this:

Professor:

The dancers looked like stick figures in a child’s

drawing.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Professor:

Well, after Rhine did his experiments at Duke, a

lot of similar experiments have been done—at Stanford
University, in Scotland, and elsewhere, and the conclusion
. . . most researchers have decided that Rhine’s results were,
I guess the kindest word I could use is questionable.

Narrator:

Question 3: What does the professor mean when

he says this:

Professor:

. . . most researchers have decided that Rhine’s

results were, I guess the kindest word I could use is
questionable.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

So that’s why you don’t believe in ESP?

28 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 28

Professor:

To put it in a nutshell—I’ve just never seen any

experimental proof for ESP that stood up to careful
examination.

Narrator:

Question 4: Why does the professor say this:

Professor:

To put it in a nutshell . . .

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Yeah, I’ve seen that painting before . . . I don’t

remember the name of the artist, but I think the painting is
called Nighthawks at the Diner.

Professor:

Yeah, that’s . . . well, a lot of people call it that,

but the real name of the painting is just Nighthawks.

Narrator:

Question 5: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

. . . a lot of people call it that, but the real name

of the painting is just Nighthawks.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

Now, if you happen to have a copy of the syl-

labus that I gave you last week you’ll notice that we’re not
gonna be able to . . . we just don’t have time to read all of
these two poems and talk about them. An epic poem—I
probably don’t have to tell you this—is a narrative poem, a
really long narrative poem.

Narrator:

Question 6: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

. . . I probably don’t have to tell you this . . .

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

Anyway, the main characters in the Iliad, they’re

strong, they’re great warriors, but you know . . . they’re not
as clever, not as smart as Odysseus. He’s the one who thinks
up the plan to end the war—after ten long years—and
defeat the Trojans. He’s the . . . the mastermind behind the
scheme to build the Trojan Horse.

Narrator:

Question 7: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

He’s the . . . the mastermind behind the scheme

to build the Trojan Horse.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

How does HDR energy work? Well, in theory,

anyway . . . and let me stress, I say in theory . . . it’s pretty
simple. You use oil-well drilling equipment, big drills, and
you punch two holes down into the earth about, oh, maybe
two miles—five kilometers, maybe—that’s about as far as
you can drill into the earth, for now, at least. Down there,
deep in the earth, there is this extremely hot cauldron of
rock, of granite. So then, you pump water from the surface
into the first tube. The water goes down to the hot rock and
becomes superheated. Then, the superheated water rises
up the second tube—oh, I forgot to mention that these two
tubes are interconnected—this hot water rises up the other
tube and you use that to heat up a volatile liquid—do I
need to go into what I mean by that? No? Okay. So then,
this volatile liquid turns into a vapor, a gas, and you use it
to turn an electrical turbine, and . . . bingo, you have
electricity!

Narrator:

Question 8: Why does the professor say this:

Professor:

How does HDR energy work? Well, in theory,

anyway . . . and let me stress, I say in theory . . . it’s pretty
simple.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Student B:

So, what else happened at a potlatch?

Professor:

Well, then, the host would usually destroy some

of his most valuable possessions, such as fishing canoes,
and he’d throw coins and . . . and almost anything valuable
into the sea . . .

Student B:

What?! Excuse me, Professor . . . I just don’t get it.

It just seems kinda crazy to me. Why would anyone want to
host a party like that?

Narrator:

Question 9: What does the student mean when he

says this:

Student A:

Excuse me, Professor . . . I just don’t get it.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Professor:

Okay, everyone. We’ve been talking about tradi-

Student A:

Oh, that’s an easy one—it’s the hula dance.

Narrator:

Question 10: What does the student mean when

she says this:

Student A:

Oh, that’s an easy one . . .

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Professor:

By the way, in Hawaiian, the word ukulele means

“jumping flea.”

Student B:

Jumping flea! Yeah? Why did they call it that?

Professor:

Hmmmmm. Probably it was because . . . well, to

tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue. I’ll try to find out for
you, though.

Narrator:

Question 11: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

. . . to tell you the truth, I don’t have a clue.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Guest Speaker:

Thank you, Professor Nugent, thanks for

inviting me. I always appreciate the chance to talk to stu-
dents . . . to anyone who’ll listen, for that matter, about our
disappearing battlefields. The organization I work with is
trying to save battlefields from development. It’s an uphill
struggle. By one estimate, twenty-five acres of Civil War bat-
tlefield are being lost every day. That’s like an acre an hour.

Narrator:

Question 12: What does the speaker mean when

she says this:

Guest Speaker:

It’s an uphill struggle.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the discussion. Then

answer the question.

Student A:

Can’t we just read about these little battles in

history books?

Professor:

I’m going to jump in here, Frances, and com-

ment on what David just said.

Narrator:

Question 13: What does Professor Nugent mean

when he says this:

Professor:

I’m going to jump in here, Frances, and com-

ment on what David just said.

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

A couple of days ago, we were talking about the

poet Walt Whitman, and if you recall, I said that he was one

Section 2 Guide to Listening 29

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 29

of the two great voices in American poetry in the nine-
teenth century. Today, I’m going to drop the other shoe and
talk about the other great poet, Emily Dickinson.

Narrator:

Question 14: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

Today, I’m going to drop the other shoe . . .

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture. Then answer

the question.

Professor:

Okay, for Friday, I’d like you to read all of

Dickinson’s poems that are in our textbook. There are
about twenty, maybe twenty-five of her poems in there.
Don’t worry, though. That may sound like a lot of reading,
but it shouldn’t take you long! Friday, we’ll take a closer
look at her poems.

Narrator:

Question 15: What does the professor mean when

she says this:

Professor:

Don’t worry though, that may sound like a lot of

reading, but it shouldn’t take you long!

[CD 4 Track 8]

Lesson 13: Ordering and Matching Questions

Sample Item 1

Narrator:

Listen to part of a presentation in an astronomy

class.

Presenter:

Now there have been quite a few space probes

that have gone to Venus, so I’m only going to mention a few
of them, the most important ones. I guess, umm, one of the
most important was called Magellan. Magellan was
launched in 1990 and spent four years in orbit around
Venus. It used, uh, radar, I guess, to map the planet, and it
found out that there are all these volcanoes on Venus, just
like there are on Earth. The first probe to go there, the first
probe to go there successfully was Mariner 2 in, uh, 1962.
Mariner 1 was supposed to go there, but it blew up. There
was one, it was launched by the Soviet Union back in, uh,
the, let’s see . . . let me find it . . . hang on, no, here it is,
Venera 4 in 1967 . . . and it dropped instruments onto the
surface. They only lasted a few seconds, because of the con-
ditions, the heat and all, but this probe showed us how
really hot it was. Then, there was this one called Venus
Pioneer 2, in 1978. That was the one that found out that the
atmosphere of Venus is made of carbon dioxide, mostly.
And, uh, well, as I said . . . there were a lot of other ones too.

Narrator:

In what order were these space probes sent to

Venus?

[CD 4 Track 9]

Sample Item 2

Narrator:

Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

Professor:

Within the taiga itself, you’ll find three sub-

zones. The first of these you come to, as you’re going south,
is called open forest. The only trees here are needle-leaf
trees—you know, evergreen trees, what we call coniferous
trees. These trees tend to be small and far apart. This is
basically tundra—it looks like tundra, but with a few small
trees. Next, you come to what’s called closed forest, with
bigger needle-leaf trees growing closer together. This feels
more like a real forest. This sub-zone—well, if you like vari-
ety, you’re not going to feel happy here. You can travel for
miles and see only half a dozen species of trees. In a few

days, we’ll be talking about the tropical rain forest; now,
that’s where you’ll see variety. Okay, finally, you come to the
mixed zone. The trees are bigger still here, and you’ll start
seeing some broad-leafed trees, deciduous trees. You’ll see
larch, aspen, especially along rivers and creeks, in addition
to needle-leaf trees. So this sub-zone feels a bit more like
the temperate forests we’re used to.

Narrator:

The professor discussed three sub-zones of the

taiga. Match each sub-zone with its characteristic.

[CD 5 TRACK 2]

Exercise 13.1

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a chemistry class.

Professor:

Okay, last class, we were considering various

hydrocarbon compounds, and today, we’re focusing on the
most . . . well, definitely one of the most useful hydrocar-
bon compounds of all, at least from a commercial . . . an
economic point of view. That’s right, I’m talking about coal.
You know, there probably . . . you probably would never
have seen an Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth cen-
tury without coal. Coal provided the fuel, the power for the
Industrial Revolution. And even today, life would be very
different if we didn’t have coal. You may not know this, but
in most countries around the world, electricity is still
mostly produced by burning coal.

So, where does coal come from? Well, imagine what the

earth was like, oh, say 300 million years ago, give or take a
few million years. We call this time the Carboniferous
Period. Get the connection? Carboniferous . . . coal form-
ing? Most of the land was covered with . . . with luxuriant
vegetation, especially ferns—ferns big as trees. Eventually,
these plants died and were submerged in the waters of
swamps, where they gradually decomposed. And we’ve
seen what happens when plants decompose—the veg-
etable matter loses oxygen and hydrogen atoms, leaving a
deposit with a high percentage of carbon. When this hap-
pens, you get peat bogs—in other words, you, uh, you get
wetlands full of this muck, this, umm, partly decayed veg-
etable matter that’s called peat. Okay, so now you’ve got
these great peat bogs and over time, layers of sand and
mud from the water settle over this gooey mass of peat. The
deposits grow thicker and thicker and this in turn means
the pressure gets . . . it increases on the peat. The water is
squeezed out, the deposits are compressed and, uh, hard-
ened . . . because of this pressure. And so you have—coal!

There are different grades of coal. Lignite—it’s also

called brown coal—is the lowest grade. By lowest grade, I
mean it has the lowest percentage of carbon. Lignite has a
lot of moisture, it can be up to 45% water, and has a fairly
high amount of sulfur as well. It’s often burned in furnaces
to produce heat and to make electricity. Bituminous coal
has a higher carbon content—and of course, less moisture.
Bituminous coal is usually used for generating electricity.
Anthracite is the highest . . . the highest grade of naturally
occurring coal. It’s used mainly to produce coke. The
anthracite is baked and, uh, distilled to make coke.
Everyone knows what coke is, right? It’s almost pure carbon
and is used in the manufacture of steel, mainly. One of the
byproducts of . . . of the process of making coke is coal tar.
Coal tar is used to make a lot of different types of plastic.
It’s also used to make some types of soap and shampoo.
Oh, and I almost forgot about jet. Jet is a kind of compact
lignite, and it’s used to make jewelry.

OK, we’re going to talk about oil, about petroleum, next,

but, uh, any questions about coal first?

30 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 30

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: The lecturer discusses the steps

involved in the creation of coal. Summarize this process by
putting the steps in the proper order.

Narrator:

Question 2: Match the form of coal with the type

of industry that primarily uses it.

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an accounting seminar.

Professor:

Hello, everyone. As you can see from our course

syllabus, our topic today is something called “GAAP.”
Anyone have any idea what we mean by that acronym,
GAAP? Yes, Jennifer?

Student A:

Ummm, I think it means “General Accepted

Accounting Practices.”

Professor:

Almost right. Anyone else? Yeah, Michael?

Student B:

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, I

think.

Professor:

Bingo, you got it. So, what are these? What do we

mean by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? Well,
they are basically a set of rules, of, uh, concepts, assump-
tions, conventions, whatever you want to call them, for
measuring and, um, for reporting information in financial
forms.

Student A:

What kind of financial forms?

Professor:

Almost any kind of form—balance sheets,

income statements, cash flow statements, you name it.
There are different kinds of GAAP. There are GAAP for gov-
ernment organizations, for non-profit organizations, and
for profit-making businesses. The principles we’ll be look-
ing at deal with for-profit entities, but they are really gen-
eral principles that apply to almost any accounting system.

Student A:

And so, the purpose of GAAP is to . . .

Professor:

It has the same purpose as standards in any

field. If every business in one field used different stan-
dards—okay, imagine this. You go to the store to get a
pound of coffee. Then you go to another store and get
another pound of coffee, and it weighs more than the first
pound. Or you get a liter bottle of milk from one store, and
it’s much smaller than the liter bottle from another store.
That’s what it would be like. There’d be no, uh, no basis for
comparison . . .

Student A:

That would be pretty confusing!

Professor:

You bet. It would be sheer chaos. Now, GAAP

includes a lot of concepts, but to get us started, we’ll, uh,
we’ll focus on these three important ones, these three basic
ones today. Okay, first off, the business entity principle.
Who wants to take a swing at explaining that concept?
Jennifer?

Student A:

Uh, that means . . . well, a business has to keep

its accounts . . . has to keep them separate from its owners’
account . . . from their personal accounts.

Professor:

Exactly. It means that, for accounting purposes, a

business and its owners are separate entities. The assets
and liabilities of a business have to be kept separate from
the assets and liabilities of any other entity, including the
owners and the creditors of the business. This means that if
you own a business, and you have a dinner date one night,
you can’t finance your date with funds from your business.
It means that, uh, you can’t list your collection of baseball
cards as corporate assets—those are your personal assets.
So, everybody got that? Pretty simple concept . . . the busi-
ness entity principle. Okay, onward to the next principle,
the cost principle. What do you think that might be?

Student B:

The cost principle. Hmmm. I don’t know,

Professor . . . Um, does it just mean that, when your busi-
ness has a cost, you have to record it in the books?

Professor:

Well, not just that you have to record it . . . it

means that assets have to be recorded in the company
accounts at the price at which they were originally pur-
chased—not at today’s perceived market value. Let’s say,
umm, you bought ten computers five years ago for $1,000
each, and that today they’re worth about half that. This
principle says that you have to record them on your books
at the original price. We’ll talk more about that later, but
before we do, let’s just quickly mention the matching prin-
ciple. Anyone know what that is? Jennifer?

Student A:

No idea, Professor.

Professor:

Anyone else? No? Well, this principle . . . it simply

states that a firm has to record any expenses that it incurs
in the period when the sale was made. Say, uh, you own a
used car lot, and your books say that you sold ten cars in
June. Okay, then you have to record the salespersons’ June
salaries along with those sales. You have to include the rent
you paid for the land that your used car lot is standing on.
You have to include the expense of the helium that you
used to blow up the balloons that lured the customers onto
your car lot, and the money you spent for advertising your
wonderful deals on cars on late-night cable television.
Okay, now I’m going to give you a handout that explains
GAAP in more detail, and we’re going to see how these
principles actually affect the way you enter information in
accounts, but . . . before we go on, anyone have any
questions?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 3: Match the accounting principle with

the appropriate description of it.

Narrator:

Listen to a guest lecture in an agricultural eco-

nomics class.

Guest Lecturer:

Hi there, I’m Floyd Haney. I’m your U.S.

Department of Agriculture’s county agent for Harrison
County, have been for some twenty-two years. Professor
Mackenzie was kind enough to ask me over to the school
here today to chat with you about the, uh, agricultural situ-
ation in Floyd County today. Now, you probably know, your
main crop here in Harrison County has always been wheat,
wheat followed by corn. Been that way for, well, likely since
the Civil War, I guess . . . maybe even longer. Wheat is still
your most important crop here, but, this may come as a bit
of a shocker to some of you, in the last few years, soybeans
have actually outstripped corn. Soybeans are now more
economically important than corn. Imagine.

Now, down in the southern part of the county, you’ve got

a real interesting phenomenon with your heirloom crops,
your heirloom fruit and vegetables. Anyone know what
those are? Heirloom crops?

Student A:

Well, I’ve heard of heirloom breeds of animals—

breeds of animals that were common a long time ago, but
they’re really rare today. Some farmers are trying to bring
these animals back now.

Guest Lecturer:

Right, well, heirloom crops—they’re also

called heritage crops—they’re exactly the same. These are
varieties of plants that were grown 20, 40, 100 years ago,
but these days, only a few people grow them. Down in the
southern part of Harrison County there are, oh, half a
dozen small farms—Rainbow Valley, Cloverleaf Farms,
Underwood Acres, and a handful of others—that are grow-
ing these heirloom crops. They’re growing this variety of
watermelon, it’s called Moon and Star melon—that was
popular around 1910. I’ll tell you, those melons are so

Section 2 Guide to Listening 31

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 31

sweet and juicy, you wonder why farmers ever stopped
growing them! What else . . . they grow heirloom tomatoes,
cucumbers, peppers, squash, just all kinds of fruits and
vegetables. These farmers are selling seeds over the
Internet and they’re selling their vegetables at farmers’
markets, mostly. Now, these heirloom crops, they’re not as
important yet as the other three crops I mentioned, but I’ll
tell you what, sales of these seeds and veggies are so hot
right now that you’ve got a lot of other farmers in the area
thinking about growing some heirlooms themselves.

All right, then, let’s talk a bit about our top crop, which is

wheat, as I said earlier. Now, according to the Department
of Agriculture, there are seven types of wheat, depending
on their texture and color. You’ll find three or four of those
growing here in Harrison County. You get a lot of durum
wheat here, that’s probably the most common kind you’ll
see. Durum is used for, mainly used for making pasta—
spaghetti, macaroni, linguini, and so on, all your types of
pasta. Then there’s soft white wheat, which is usually
bought up by companies that make breakfast cereals. The
next time you’re having your Toasty Wheat Squares in the
morning, just think, they might be made with Harrison
County wheat. And of course, you have hard red wheat,
which makes wonderful bread flour.

By the way, I brought some packets of tomato seeds

from Rainbow Valley Farms—these are seeds for heirloom
tomatoes called Better Boy Tomatoes—you’ll notice the
seed packages look like they came from around 1910, too. If
any of you want to try your hand at growing some of these
babies in your backyard, come on up after class and I’ll give
you a free packet of seeds.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 4: The lecturer mentions four types of

crops that are grown in Harrison County. Rank these four
types of crops in their order of economic importance,
beginning with the most important.

Narrator:

Question 5: Match the type of wheat with the

product that is most often made from it.

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a modern history class.

Professor:

Okay, we’re going to continue with “Explorers

and Exploration Week.” Today we’re talking about twenti-
eth-century explorers. Usually, you know, when we, uh,
mention twentieth-century exploration, people naturally
think about astronauts, cosmonauts. We think about the
first man in orbit, the first man to walk on the moon, and
so on. And, in fact, we will take a look at space exploration
in our next class, but today, we’re going to talk about
explorers in the early part of the twentieth century. Back
then, the place to go if you were an explorer was . . .
Antarctica. Tell me, has anyone ever read anything about
the early exploration of Antarctica?

Student A:

A coupla years ago, I read a book by, umm,

Richard Byrd, Admiral Byrd, called Alone.

Professor:

That’s a remarkable book . . . about endurance

. . . about courage.

Student A:

Oh, I know—it was just incredible how he could

survive in that cold, dark place all by himself.

Student B:

I’ve never read that book—what’s it about?

Professor:

Well, it’s about Richard Byrd’s second trip to

Antarctica, in 1934. He established this advance weather
station about 100 miles from his main base. It was basically
just a wooden hut, and it was soon completely covered in
snow and ice. There were supposed to be three people
working there, but because of bad weather, Byrd was cut off

from the main base and got stuck there for the whole
winter. And at that time of year in Antarctica, it’s dark all
day long.

Student A:

Yeah, and at first he didn’t realize it, but his

heater . . . it was poisoning him. The, uh, fumes from the
heater were toxic . . .

Professor:

That’s right. It was carbon monoxide poisoning.

Student A:

But he kept sending messages back to the main

base saying that everything was okay so that they wouldn’t
try to come rescue him and maybe die themselves in the
winter storms. He barely survived.

Student B:

So, Professor, was Byrd the first person to go to

the South Pole?

Professor:

No, no, not by a long shot he wasn’t. He was the

first person to fly to the South Pole. Well, he didn’t actually
land there, but he flew over the Pole, he and his pilot Bernt
Balchen. That was in 1929. That same year he also estab-
lished the first permanent . . . the first large-scale camp in
Antarctica. Since he was from the United States, he named
it Little America. Some people called Byrd “the mayor of
Antarctica.”

Student B:

So then, if it wasn’t Byrd, who was it?

Professor:

I’m glad you asked that! Years before, about

twenty years before Byrd came to Antarctica, there was a
race, an international race to see who could get to the
South Pole first. The newspapers called it “the race to the
bottom of the world.” The two main players were Norway
and Britain. It was a little like the race to the moon in the
1960’s, like the . . . like the space race between the U.S. and
the U.S.S.R. The first expedition to get near the South Pole
was led by a British explorer, Ernest Shackleton. That was
in 1909. He was less than a hundred miles from the Pole
when he had to turn around and go back to his base.

Student B:

Why did he turn around if he was so close?

Professor:

Well, he was running low on supplies, and as

happens so often in Antarctica, the weather turned bad.
Then, things got really exciting in 1911. Two expeditions left
their base camps and headed for the Pole. The race was on.
The first one to leave was under the Norwegian explorer
Roald Amundsen. The other one was under the British
explorer Robert Scott, who had been, um, on Shackleton’s
expedition a couple of years earlier.

Student A:

C’mon, Professor, don’t keep us in suspense. Tell

us who won!

Professor:

Well, in January of 1912—

Student B:

January? Wouldn’t that be the worst time to

travel in Antarctica . . . in the middle of winter?

Professor:

You’re forgetting, it’s in the southern hemisphere,

December, January, those are the warmest months, the
middle of summer. Of course, anywhere near the South
Pole, the middle of summer is hardly tropical. Anyway, the
British expedition reached the Pole in January 1912, think-
ing they were going to be the first. And what do you sup-
pose they found there? The Norwegian flag, planted in the
ice. Amundsen’s party had reached the Pole about, oh, a
few weeks earlier, in late December, 1911.

Student B:

Oh, the British team must have been really dis-

appointed, huh?

Professor:

No doubt. In fact, there’s a picture of the Scott

expedition taken at the Pole, and they look exhausted, and
terribly disappointed, and dejected, but that was just the
beginning of their troubles.

Student A:

Oh, no. What else happened?

Professor:

Their trip back to their base turned into a—into

just a nightmare. The expedition suffered setback after set-
back. They weren’t as well equipped or as well supplied as

32 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 32

the Norwegian expedition, either. This being Antarctica, the
weather was frightful, there were terrible storms. Then they
ran out of food and . . . ironically, they were just 11 miles
from where they had left a cache of food, but . . . sadly,
none of Scott’s men made it back to their base.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 6: The professor discusses some of the

history of Antarctic exploration. Summarize this history by
putting these events in the correct chronological order.

Narrator:

Question 7: Match these Antarctic explorers with

the countries from which they came.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a musical acoustics class.

Professor:

Anyone know what this little electronic device is?

No? It’s a sound-level meter, a digital sound-level meter. It
measures intensity of sound . . . what we usually call vol-
ume. Loudness. The read-out gives you the decibel level. By
the way, I’m lecturing at about 61, 62 decibels. Now, we’ve
been hearing a lot about decibel levels lately. The City
Council has been considering a law to regulate the sound
levels outside of clubs, and you know, student hangouts
along State Street. This law, the one they’re thinking about
passing, says the decibel level just outside the doorways of
these places has to be 70 or below from 10

. until 7

and 80 or below any other time. If, uh, the police or envi-
ronmental officers record decibel levels higher than that,
they’ll give a warning the first time and after that, they
could give the business owners a fine. And there’s already a
law that controls the decibel level for concerts at the sta-
dium. After years of complaining that their window panes
rattled during rock concerts, the people who live in the
Stone Hill neighborhood over by the stadium, those neigh-
bors got together and got the City Council to limit the
sound level just outside the stadium to a maximum of 100
decibels.

And, you know, there are good reasons why we should

be concerned about high sound levels. About 10 million
people in the United States have some sort of hearing loss
due to excessive noise. A lot of this, it’s caused by . . . well,
there are occupational reasons. People who operate heavy
equipment, who work in noisy factories, farmers, miners
. . . they all have to deal with high decibel levels. But some
of the problem comes from loud, loud music. The thing is,
hearing loss is incremental, it, uh, happens bit by bit, so it’s
. . . well, you don’t usually notice it happening, although
sometimes . . . have you ever been to a concert and when
you came out, your ears were ringing? Or you hear a
buzzing sound? This is called tinnitus. Tinnitus. Now, if you
are at a really loud concert, or you go to a number of con-
certs in a short period, you may experience TTS—
Temporary Threshold Shift. This means that you, uh, well,
it means that you lose the ability to hear low-volume
sounds. Everything sounds . . . muffled, like you had cotton
in your ears. This can last a couple of hours or it can last all
day. And unfortunately, noise exposure over a prolonged
period can cause TTS to turn into a permanent condition
called NIHL—noise-induced hearing loss.

Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about today is an

experiment that a group of students in my class did a cou-
ple of years ago. It was their final project for my class. They
borrowed this little sound-level meter of mine and took it
to all sorts of musical venues. They went to a rock concert
at the stadium—this was before the law was passed regulat-
ing sound levels there. There was a band called the
Creatures playing, I think it was the Creatures. From the

seats they had—they sat pretty close to the stage—they
measured a maximum decibel level of about 110 when the
band was playing. This level, 110 decibels, is the high end
of what is considered “musically useful.” Now, 110 decibels
is loud, no doubt about it. It’s about as loud as a jet taking
off when you’re 100 meters away. Of course, the sound
didn’t just come from the music—the meter also measured
the crowd noise, too, and rock concert crowds can get
pretty loud. Still, I was a little surprised—I mean, given the
size of these bands’ amplifiers, I was a bit surprised that
the sound levels weren’t even higher.

The students also took the meter to a classical concert,

the University Philharmonic Symphony. I’d estimate that if
a full symphony orchestra plays flat-out as loud as they
possibly can, you might get levels of about, oh, 95, 100
decibels. The night the students went, though, the loudest
level they recorded was only 85 decibels. During a violin
solo, the level from their seats was only about 55 decibels.
That’s at the very low end of the “musically useful” range.
At that level, you can barely hear the music over the sound
of the ventilating system, and the, uh, the occasional
cough. Of course, at a classical concert, you’re not going to
have the audience noise that you would at a rock concert.
Beethoven fans are usually a little more restrained than
rock fans.

The loudest music the students recorded in a public

place wasn’t even live music. It was at a club over on State
Street, Club 1010. I think it’s closed now. Anyway, as I said,
it wasn’t live music, it was a disc jockey playing recorded
music but . . . well, that club must have had a very powerful
sound system, practically a nuclear-powered sound system,
because the sound level on the dance floor was 117 deci-
bels. That’s not considered “musically useful.” That’s con-
sidered “painfully loud.”

One time, the students were on their way to a jazz club

downtown, and one of their friends gave them a ride in his
van. The friend didn’t realize they had their sound-level
meter with them. Anyway, he was playing a CD and
cranked up the sound system to the maximum volume . . .
and guess what? This was the highest reading of all! It was
over 125 decibels, which is just this side of being consid-
ered “unbearable.” It must have been loud enough to shake
the fillings out of their teeth!

Okay, well, I’m going to pass out a copy of the students’

paper so you can see for yourself just how noisy your
favorite places to hear music are . . .

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 8: The professor mentions several con-

ditions caused by excessively loud music. Match the condi-
tion to the correct description of it.

Narrator:

Question 9: The professor lists several musical

events at which her students recorded sound levels. List
these events in the correct order based on volume, begin-
ning with the highest volume.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a U.S. literature class.

Professor:

Well, I told you at the end of the last class that I

thought you would enjoy the reading assignment that I
gave you—was I right? . . . Yeah, I thought so . . . most stu-
dents like reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe—maybe in
part because so many of his works have been turned into
spooky movies!

Let’s, um, take a brief look at Poe’s early life. He was born

in Boston in 1809. He was an orphan, he was orphaned at
an early age. A businessman named John Allan unofficially

Section 2 Guide to Listening 33

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 33

adopted him. Allan took him to England when he was six,
and Poe went to private school there. He came back to the
United States in 1820 and in 1826 he went to the University
of Virginia in Charlottesville for a year. However, his adop-
tive father John Allan wasn’t happy about the way Poe car-
ried on at the university. He kept hearing stories that Poe
was drinking and gambling all his money away. Allan came
to Charlottesville and made Poe drop out and go to work as
a bank clerk—as a bookkeeper, more or less.

Well, Poe was young and artistic—he already considered

himself a poet—and, as you can imagine, he hated this bor-
ing bank job. He did everything he could to get himself
fired. It didn’t take long. After leaving his job, he wrote and
published his first book of poems. Right after this, Poe
returned to Boston and reconciled with John Allan. Allan
decided that all Poe needed was some discipline, so he
arranged for Poe to enter the U.S. military academy at West
Point. Now, do you think Poe enjoyed the life of a cadet at
the academy? You’re right, he didn’t like it any more than
he’d liked working as a bank clerk, and he was tossed out of
the school after just a few months for disobeying orders
and for, um, generally neglecting his duties. After this . . .
well, John Allan was fed up. He figured he’d done every-
thing he could for his adopted son and so Allan completely
disowned him. Poe was on his own. He moved to
Baltimore—that’s the city he’s most closely associated
with—and devoted himself to his writing.

Now, I’m not going to talk about Poe’s later life right

now, not until after we’ve had a chance to talk about some
of his works, because . . . well, the tragic events of his later
life deeply influenced his writing.

Poe’s first love was poetry. He considered himself mainly

a poet. In fact, he said that he wrote other works just to
make money, money to live on while he wrote his poems.
The poem that I asked you to read for this class is “The
Raven,” and it’s definitely one of his most famous pieces.
Isn’t it amazing how Poe creates such a sad and mysterious
and downright scary mood in this poem? Then I also asked
you to read Poe’s horror story, “The Fall of the House of
Usher.” Poe wrote a lot of horror stories. Several of them—
including this one—are considered classics of that genre.
Today’s horror writers, like Stephen King, owe Poe quite a
debt. Again, in this story, Poe creates a gloomy, haunting
mood, but the plot and characterization are outstanding.
Finally, I asked you to read the short story “The Gold Bug.”
This is a detective story, a mystery, a “whodunit.” Who do
you think invented the detective story? It was none other
than Edgar Allan Poe. A lot of people think it was Arthur
Conan Doyle, who wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories, but
Poe was writing this kind of story years before Doyle.

Okay, I’m going to read Poe’s poem “The Raven” aloud. I

want you to listen carefully to the rhythm of the poem, the
rhymes, the sounds, just the sounds of Poe’s words, and see
how all these contribute to the meaning of the poem, how
he builds this gloomy, almost desperate mood. Okay, ready?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 10: The professor gives a brief biogra-

phy of the writer Edgar Allan Poe. List these events from his
life in the order in which they occurred.

Narrator:

Question 11: Match these works by Edgar Allan

Poe with the type of writing that they represent.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an anthropology class.

Professor:

All right, today, our class is going to the dogs!

Last week, we talked about the process of domesticating

animals in general. Today, we’re going to talk about the first
animal to be domesticated—man’s best friend, the dog!

There’s a lot we don’t know about the domestication of

dogs. For one thing, we don’t know when it happened. For a
long time, scientists thought that it occurred about 10,000
years ago. Then, some scientists—scientists who study dog
DNA, like Robert Wayne of UCLA—they tried to push that
date way back in time. They said that domestication
occurred about 100,000 years ago. We know now, know for
sure that it happened at least 14,000 years ago. A fragment
of a bone that has definitely been identified as belonging to
a dog was found in a cave in Germany, and it’s 14,000 years
old. Domestication probably took place around 20,000
years ago.

We don’t know where dogs were first domesticated

either. By the fifteenth century, the dog was found all over
the world—the first domestic animal with a global range.
The most likely point of origin is Southwest Asia, but some
scientists think that it was in East Asia, while others think
maybe Europe or North Africa. We know it wasn’t in the
Western Hemisphere because the DNA of dogs in the
Americas is more closely related to Eurasian wolves than it
is to American wolves, so dogs must have followed humans
to Alaska across the land bridge from Siberia.

Then we also don’t know exactly how humans domesti-

cated dogs, although there are various theories. One theory
is that dogs figured out early on that they could feed pretty
well just by hanging around humans and eating the scraps
of food that were, you know, just thrown out or left sitting
around. But, to have access to these morsels, dogs had to
get over their natural fear of humans, and so, according to
this theory, dogs more or less domesticated themselves.
Another theory is that dogs were domesticated from wolves
by means of selective breeding. There was an experiment
done by a Russian scientist, Dmitri Balyaev, in the 1940’s.
He bred a group of wild Siberian foxes. The only character-
istic he was interested in when he was breeding these foxes
was tameness, friendliness towards humans. In only six
generations of foxes—only six generations, mind you!—he
had bred foxes that weren’t afraid of humans, that wagged
their tails when they saw their keepers, that even licked
their keepers’ faces. If he could do this with foxes in six
generations, early humans surely could have done it with
wolves over thousands of generations.

We do know what animal domestic dogs come from.

There are almost 400 breeds of dogs today, but all of them,
from Chihuahuas to great Danes, are descendants of the
Eurasian grey wolf. Because there are so many differences
among types of dogs—size, shape, color, temperament—
scientists once wondered if some were related to other
types of wild dogs, like African jackals, Australian dingoes,
or American coyotes. DNA tests, though, showed that all
dogs are related to wolves. But, uh, there are some dogs,
like German shepherds, that are closer to wolves than oth-
ers. This indicates that domestication may have taken place
in various stages—you know, some breeds may have been
domesticated more recently than others.

Dogs were first domesticated during humankind’s earli-

est stage of development—the hunter-gatherer period.
Apparently, umm, their first job was to serve as guards.
With their keen sense of smell and hearing, dogs made it
almost impossible for strangers to come up to a sleeping
village by surprise. Later, humans took advantage of dogs’
hunting ability. Dogs helped humans get hold of meat and
skins from wild animals. Take a look at this rock painting
that was found in the Jaro Mountains in Iraq—it’s maybe

34 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 34

8,000 years old. It shows people with spears hunting deer,
getting some help from dogs with curly tails. Still later, after
humans domesticated herd animals—goats, cattle, sheep—
well, dogs helped gather up these animals and move them
from place to place by barking and nipping at their heels.
Take a look at this fresco. It’s from the wall of a sandstone
grotto in the desert in Algeria. It’s probably 5,000 years old.
The herders are driving their oxen home from the fields
while their “best friends” are helping them out.

Today, of course, most dogs have taken on another role.

Sure, some dogs are still working dogs. They help hunters,
they herd animals, they pull loads, they find survivors of
natural disasters. Most dogs, though, are not valued so
much for the work they do as for the company they pro-
vide. But that doesn’t mean their ability to perform these
earlier roles has been completely bred out of them. My two
dogs, Raisin and Cosmo—they still perform guard duty. No
way will they let the mail carrier sneak up to my house!
And, last weekend, I was at the park with my little nieces
and nephew, and the kids were running around the play-
ground. Raisin and Cosmo—they’re both border collies,
which are herding dogs—they were actually out there herd-
ing these kids! I mean, they were barking and jumping
around and trying to keep the kids from running off. They
still have that herding instinct!

All right, next I’m going to talk a little about horses,

about domesticating horses, and what a huge impact that
had on humans, but first, any questions about domesticat-
ing dogs?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 12: The professor mentions a number of

archaeological finds that were related to the domestication
of dogs. Match these finds with their locations.

Narrator:

Question 13: The professor mentions a number of

roles that dogs have played since they were first domesti-
cated. List these roles in chronological order, beginning
with the earliest role that dogs played.

[CD 5 Track 3]

Lesson 14: Completing Charts

Sample Item

Narrator:

Listen to part of a discussion in a business class.

Professor:

What does a case look like? Well, cases are basi-

cally descriptions of actual—let me stress that, of real busi-
ness situations, chunks of reality from the business world.
So, you get typically ten to twenty pages of text that
describe the problem, some problem that a real business
actually faced. And then there will be another five to ten
pages of what are called exhibits.

Student B:

Exhibits? What are those?

Professor:

Exhibits . . . those are documents, statistical doc-

Student B:

So that’s why we study cases? I mean, because

managers need to be able to make decisions . . . and solve
problems?

Professor:

Exactly . . . well, that’s a big part of it, anyway.

And doing this, solving the problem, usually involves role-
playing, taking on the roles of decision-makers at the firm.
One member of the group might play the Chief Executive
Officer, one the Chief Financial Officer, and so. And you . . .
you might have a business meeting to decide how your
business should solve its problem. Your company might,
say, be facing a cash shortage and thinking about selling off
one division of the company. So your group has to decide if
this is the best way to handle the problem.

Student B:

So we work in groups, then?

Professor:

Usually in groups of four or five. That’s the

beauty of this method. It teaches teamwork and
cooperation.

Student A:

And then what? How are we . . . how do you

decide on a grade for us?

Professor:

You give a presentation, an oral presentation, I

Student B:

Professor, is this the only way we’ll be studying

business, by using cases?

Professor:

Oh no, it’s just one important way. Some classes

are lecture classes and some are a combination of lectures
and case studies and some . . . in some classes you’ll also
use computer simulations. We have this software called
World Marketplace, and, using this program, your group
starts up your own global corporation and tries to make a
profit . . . it’s actually a lot of fun.

Narrator:

In this lecture, the professor describes the process

of the case study method. Indicate whether each of the fol-
lowing is a step in the process.

[CD 6 Track 2]

Exercise 14.1

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in an urban studies class.

Professor:

Okay, I guess most of you are familiar with the,

uh, with the commercial section of Harmony Road, right?
Who can describe that area for me?

Student A:

Well it’s . . . there are a couple of big shopping

centers and a few strip malls . . . lots of fast food places and
motels, uh, big box stores . . . used car lots . . . .

Professor:

Right. And, suppose you had to sum up that sort

of development, what would you call it?

Student A:

I guess you’d call it . . . sprawl. Suburban sprawl.

Professor:

Right. And the residential suburbs out in that

area, how would you describe them?

Student B:

Well, they’re fairly nice . . . nice big houses, big

yards . . .

Professor:

Now, say you lived in one of those neighbor-

hoods and you ran out of bread . . . would you walk to the
market?

Student B:

No way. Most places there don’t even have side-

walks. And . . . everything is so far apart.

Professor:

Exactly right. Those suburbs, and that commer-

cial section, represent what we call Conventional Suburban
Design, or CSD. Today I want to talk about a theory of
urban design, a movement called New Urbanism that chal-
lenges CSD. In a New Urban community, you can walk to
the store to buy a loaf of bread.

Although this movement, this philosophy is called New

Urbanism, in a way, it should be called traditional urban-
ism because it looks to the past, it models today’s commu-
nities on the way communities looked in the past. Think

Section 2 Guide to Listening 35

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 35

about a typical town in the United States a hundred years
ago. You had a central business area, a downtown sur-
rounded by residential neighborhoods. That all changed in
the fifties and sixties. That’s when the “flight to the sub-
urbs” took place. A lot of suburban shopping malls were
built. Huge areas of land, usually farmland, were devel-
oped. Automobile use soared. Downtowns deteriorated or
died, and the old neighborhoods in the city center, mostly
they became slums.

Today over 500 “New Urbanist” communities have been

built or are being constructed, and most of these feature an
old “Main Street” style business center . . . a “downtown,” if
you will.

Okay, here are some core principles of New Urbanism.

First, walkability. Streets are pedestrian friendly and lined
with trees. Just as in older cities, streets are laid out on a
grid. Actually, New Urbanists generally use a “modified”
grid, with “T” intersections and some diagonals to, uh,
calm traffic and increase visual interest. There’s a mix of
narrow streets, wider boulevards, walkways, and alleys
between streets. Some streets are designated car-free. You
wouldn’t get any big surface parking lots. Parking is in
underground lots or in garages behind houses, out of sight.
And there are some great benefits to this. With more people
walking the streets, communities are safer, there’s less
crime. And fewer cars means less pollution.

Another principle is mixed use. On one block, even in

one building, there may be a mix of shops, restaurants,
offices, and apartments. A big family house may be right
next to a moderately-priced apartment building. Shop
owners live upstairs from their shops. This kind of develop-
ment encourages a diverse population—a mix of ages,
classes, cultures, races.

Another principle: increased density. Residences, shops,

and services, all of these are closer together than in a CSD,
especially around the community center. This helps with
the ease of walking I mentioned before—no residences
should be more than a ten-minute walk from the commu-
nity center. But, increased density doesn’t mean eliminat-
ing open space. New Urban communities are dotted with
little parks, pocket parks, and ideally there is a community
space, an open plaza, a village green in the center of town
where people can gather.

You also want to emphasize smart transportation, and,

uh, of course that means de-emphasizing the car. Ideally,
there is a train or a light-rail system for transport in and
out of the community. Within the community, as I said,
you want to encourage walking and bicycling. Of course,
this gives you exercise, and it’s healthier than driving
everywhere.

Student B:

Professor, do the, uh, houses, the residences in

these New Urban places, ummm, New Urban communities,
do they look any different from houses in regular suburbs?

Professor:

Well, there’s an emphasis on comfort . . . on cre-

ating attractive, comfortable houses. I already mentioned
that parking spaces, garages are typically behind the house.
So, the front of the house is not taken up with two- or
three-car garages that are part of the house. Houses are
closer to the street. And a common feature is a big front
porch, often with a porch swing. This is a, uh, well, an invit-
ing space to get together, to sit around with neighbors.
Sometimes, too, you’ll get a theme going in a New Urban
community. I have some slides that I’m going to show you
later. In some East Coast communities, there’s a Colonial
look to all the buildings. Some communities have a neo-
Victorian look. In other communities, all the houses are
painted in bright colors.

Student A:

You said there were about 500 New Urban com-

munities around the country. Where are they mostly?

Professor:

Well, there are some in almost every state. Some

are built in undeveloped areas. Those are called “greenfield
sites.” Others are in run-down urban areas. Those are
“grayfield sites.” Oh. And some of the most promising sites
for future projects are what are called “grayfield malls.”

Student A:

What are those?

Professor:

Well, about 2,000 major shopping malls have

been built in the United States. Of these, 8% are closed—
and another 11% are in danger of closing. Many of these
would make ideal New Urban communities. Well, next I
want to show you some slides of some New Urban commu-
nities: Seaside in Florida, Kentlands in Maryland, Prospect
in Colorado, Plum Creek in Texas. Would someone in the
back there dim the lights?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: In this lecture, the professor

describes the New Urbanism Movement. Indicate whether
each of the following is a principle of this movement.

Narrator:

Question 2: In this lecture, the professor mentions

benefits associated with the New Urbanism Movement.
Indicate whether each of the following is a benefit men-
tioned in the lecture.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a British History class.

Professor:

Good morning. In our last class, we were dis-

cussing King Richard. Richard the Lionhearted. We talked,
as you’ll no doubt recall, about his role in the Third
Crusade, how he was kidnapped on his way home to
England, how he died fighting in France—although, if he’d
just remembered to put his armor on, he probably would
have been just fine. Now, after Richard, we have John, John
Lackland, the King John. Actually, Richard’s nephew Arthur
was supposed to become king, he was next in line, but
Richard had signed an agreement with John, and so John
became king.

Now, there is a tendency, rather an unfortunate ten-

dency, to consider Richard the good king and John the evil
one. Frankly, Richard was not all that great although he was
a fairly decent military leader. He was more interested in
being the subject of songs than he was in ruling England.
He was intolerant, and he practically bankrupted the coun-
try to pay for his wars. Of course, John was supposedly so
wicked that no other British king has ever been named
John. It’s true, he was no prize, but he was probably no
worse than most other medieval rulers.

Like Richard, John spent almost no time in England. The

war in France was still going on and John was still bleeding
England white to pay for it. England at that time still con-
trolled some odd bits, some dribs and drabs of France—
Normandy, Brittany, umm, Anjou—but King Philip of
France was trying to take them away. In 1214, at the battle
of Bouvines, Philip decisively defeated John. So, defeated
and broke, John returned to England hoping to raise some
funds. He insisted that the nobles, the barons and dukes
and so on, that they pay a kind of tax called scutage—this
was a payment the barons could make rather than go fight
the war in France, a kind of bribe to avoid military service.
But the barons, a substantial number of them, anyway,
were fed up. They were tired of being taxed whenever John
needed some money. There was a Civil War. Barons chose
sides, for the king or against him. The anti-John barons
were able to capture London. On June 15, 1215, they forced
John to meet with them. They confronted him on a green

36 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 36

meadow southwest of London. They demanded that their
traditional rights be written down and that John sign this
document. The result was the Magna Carta—the Great
Charter.

Now, one of the great myths about the Magna Carta is

that it was some kind of a constitution, that it created a
democratic society. There were no democratic societies in
Europe in the thirteenth century! Really, it was . . . a feudal
document, an agreement between the king and the barons,
the aristocracy. It gave rights really to just a few powerful
families. In fact, it barely mentions the ordinary people.
The, uh, the majority of the English population gained little
from the Charter and wouldn’t have an active voice in gov-
ernment for hundreds of years. Another myth is that the
Charter established the parliamentary system of govern-
ment. It did create a council of twenty-five barons to see
that the articles of the Magna Carta were observed, but the
first recognizable English Parliament—it was called “the
model Parliament”—did not come for almost a hundred
years.

Now I said that the Magna Carta didn’t have much

immediate influence on the ordinary Englishman. That
doesn’t mean it wasn’t a document of great importance. In
its own time, the greatest value of the Magna Carta was that
it limited royal power . . . and made it clear that even the
king had to obey the law. Think about that. Before this
time, the King’s word was law, but the Magna Carta stated
that no one—no one—was above the law. That’s pretty rev-
olutionary, eh? And, over time, the charter took on even
more significance. Some articles that in 1215 applied only
to the powerful barons later applied to the whole nation.
For example, one article of the Charter says that no tax can
be imposed by the king without the barons’ consent.
Eventually, this came to be interpreted as “no taxation
without the consent of Parliament.” Another article says
that no freeman can be put in jail, deprived of property,
exiled, or executed without the lawful judgment of his
peers, his equals. Now, in John’s time, there was no such
thing as trial by jury in criminal cases, but the Magna Carta
. . . well, it sort of set this system up.

Now, I’d like everyone to take a look in your textbook,

ah, let me see, on page 184. We’ll take a quick look at a few
more of the most important provisions of the Charter.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 3: In this lecture, the professor men-

tions myths (false stories) and realities (true stories) associ-
ated with the Magna Carta. Indicate whether each of the
following is considered a myth or a reality.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a paleontology class.

Professor:

In our last class, we were talking about the tar

pits at Rancho La Brea in Los Angeles, and, uh, what a great
source of fossils, fossil information these, uh, tar pits have
been. There have been . . . well, millions, literally millions
of fossils, of bones of Ice Age mammals that were, uh,
trapped in the asphalt ponds there. It’s an ideal place for
fossil hunters . . . the sticky asphalt trapped the animals,
and then the asphalt helped preserve their bones.

Of course, um, tar pits are not the only place to look for

fossil bones. Many are found in stream beds, lake beds,
deserts. Another good place for paleontologists to look for
remains is in caves.

There are really two types of caves where fossils can be

found. One type is the carnivore den, places where carni-
vores lived. Carnivore dens tend to be small horizontal

caves. They’re generally about one to three meters in
height, and maybe thirty meters in length. They typically
have small entrances. These caves often contain the
remains of both the herbivores that the, uh, predators
dragged into the den and, uh, the remains of the carnivores
themselves. Now, with many carnivore dens, you, uh, uh,
you often will have multiple occupants of the same den
over the centuries. The occupants might not even be the
same species. Those dens, they’re kinda like dormitory
rooms. You get a couple of roommates who live there for a
year or two, they move on, then someone else moves in, so
sometimes, there’s a real jumble of bones in a carnivore’s
den—the bones of fish, rodents, birds, antelopes, all kinds
of creatures. Then, too, most of the time, caves get flooded,
and the flood waters wash all the bones and the dirt into
one corner of the cave, so you have a pile of sediment-
embedded bones. Sorting out these bones of extinct ani-
mals—some of which might be from completely unknown
species—well, this can be a pretty big challenge for
paleontologists.

A good example of a carnivore den was, uh, discovered

at Agate National Monument in Nebraska. It was excavated
by paleontologists from the University of Nebraska in the
1980’s. It’s actually a whole complex of dens used by
Miocene carnivores about, um, 22 million years ago, more
or less. Several types of carnivores used this complex, but
the most important was the beardog—a kind of extinct wild
dog. There are fragments of the bones of their prey, parts of
bones from juvenile camels, woolly rhinoceroses—did you
know that there once were camels and rhinos in Nebraska?
Pretty hard to picture, isn’t it? Giant ground sloths, lots of
oreodonts—little raccoon-size mammals that lived in
herds. There are the remains of young, mature, and aged
beardogs. There’s some evidence that they all died off about
the same time, possibly because of a prolonged drought.
After their death, their skeletons were covered up with sand
and silt that blew into the caves.

Now, uh, the second type of cave where you find fossils

is called a natural trap. Natural traps are pit caves—holes in
the ground, really. Large mammals sometimes fall right
into these holes. Generally, natural traps tend to have a
lower diversity of fossils than den sites.

One of the most incredible collections of cave fossils was

found in a natural trap in the, uh, Naracoote Cave in
Australia, in the state of Western Australia. It was found by
a group of amateur cave explorers and this site was
explored—is still being explored—by paleontologists from a
university in Adelaide. This whole area in Australia is rid-
dled with caves, but this is the first time that there’s been a
major find of fossils there. The hole leading to the cave was
covered with vegetation. This is true of most natural
traps—vegetation hides the hole and makes it almost invis-
ible. There is a 15-meter drop down to the cave floor.
Animals fell in and couldn’t get out. Even with that long
drop, though, most of the animals that fell into the cave
didn’t die on impact, apparently. How do we know?
Specimens were found in all three rooms of the cave. They
probably wandered around for several days, looking for a
way out, before eventually dying of dehydration or starva-
tion. If the animals had died on impact, all the bones
would have been found in a heap directly below the hole in
the ceiling. Now, remember I said that there were usually
fewer species in a natural trap than in a den? Not true at
the Naracoote Cave. There have been some amazing finds
there. Some, uh, ten species of giant kangaroos have been
found there. These guys were, like, five meters tall. Then

Section 2 Guide to Listening 37

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 37

there was a giant wombat. There were Tasmanian tigers.
Oh, and one of the most exciting finds was an “Australian
lion,” a predator about the size of a modern leopard. The
Australian lion, though, isn’t related to big cats, it’s a marsu-
pial, it has a pouch like a kangaroo or a koala.

So, caves. Caves, uh, present a window to the past.

Sometimes the view is a . . . a bit murky. Sometimes, like
the Naracoote Cave, you get this unbelievably clear look at
animal life long ago.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 4: In this lecture, the professor

describes carnivore dens. Decide if the following are char-
acteristics of carnivore dens.

Narrator:

Question 5: In this lecture, the professor

describes important fossil finds at Naricoote Cave, a natu-
ral trap. Decide if the following are characteristics of
Naricoote Cave.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an astronomy class.

Professor:

Now, ancient Greek astronomers believed that

the Earth was the center of the universe. This model is
called the geocentric model—geo, of course, is Greek for
Earth. Why, you ask, did they think the Earth was at the
center of everything? Well, let’s think about it a little.
Ummm, they were on the Earth and the Earth, obviously,
was not moving. I mean, if the Earth moved below our feet,
clouds and birds would be “left behind” as we moved,
right? If we jumped into the air, we wouldn’t land at exactly
the same place that we jumped from. We’d feel a constant
breeze on our cheeks caused by the Earth’s movement. And
then, of course, when the Greeks looked up at the sky, it
seemed that all the bodies they saw were revolving around
the Earth. So you see, this was really a very sensible theory,
a theory that was confirmed by observation.

Around the second century, Ptolemy, a Greek

astronomer living in Egypt, collected all the ideas of Greek
astronomers in a book called Almagest, which means
“Great Treatise.” This Ptolemy, by the way, was quite a
genius—he also wrote books about optics and geography.
So anyway, he developed, um, an elegant model of a uni-
verse that worked like clockwork. This model is so associ-
ated with Ptolemy that it’s . . . we call it the Ptolemaic
model. In this model, the planets are points of light
attached to crystal spheres, the “celestial spheres,” they’re
called. These spheres fit one inside another and move in
perfect harmony. Their circular movements were believed
to create a kind of music called “the music of the spheres.” I
always liked that idea—heavenly music. So, anyway, in this
system, the Earth is immobile and is located at the very
heart of things. The moon is attached to the closest sphere,
followed by the inner planets, Mercury and Venus. Then
came the Sun, followed by the rest of the known planets—
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn. The stars are attached to the outer-
most crystal sphere. All of these heavenly bodies are made
out of some glowing substance called “perfect matter.”

Now, there were problems with this model. One was the

retrograde movement of planets. Sometimes, planets such
as Mars seem to slow down and then change direction,
they actually seem to go backwards and then loop around
and go the other way. That’s why the Greeks called them
planets—planet is Greek for wanderer. Actually, this is an
optical illusion caused by the fact that the various planets
don’t take the same amount of time to orbit the Sun.
Ptolemy theorized that . . . well, he devised a trick to

explain this abnormality. He invented the idea of epicycles.
I’m not going to bother explaining epicycles because they
are very, very complicated. In fact, hardly anyone com-
pletely understands this system today. But his system was
remarkably accurate. It could predict the future positions of
planets and even predict solar and lunar eclipses.

Well, this Earth-centered model was accepted by almost

everyone for well, almost 1,500 years. By the Middle Ages,
the Ptolemaic system had become part and parcel of the
medieval worldview, part of religion, philosophy, science.
The planets and stars were believed to have all kinds of
powers to influence events on Earth, to shape people’s des-
tinies. Then, in the sixteenth century Nicolas Copernicus, a
scientist from East Prussia—now part of Poland—came up
with a revolutionary theory. It was the heliocentric model—
helios is Greek for Sun. It’s also called the Copernican
model. In this model, the Sun is the center of the universe,
and all the planets circle it, moving in the same direction—
first Mercury, then Venus, then Earth. The moon, naturally,
circles the Earth. Farther out from the sun are the orbits of
Mars and the other planets.

It wasn’t until a century later, when Galileo built a tele-

scope and turned it on the planets, that the Ptolemaic
model could be definitely proven false. Galileo learned that
Venus has phases, just like the moon: crescent, full, cres-
cent, then it disappears. In the Ptolemaic system, Venus
should always look like a crescent when viewed from the
Earth, but because actually it is lit from the center of its
orbit by the Sun, Venus has a complete set of phases. So,
Galileo proved Ptolemy was wrong.

Of course, nowadays we know that the Copernican sys-

tem presents a reasonably accurate picture of our solar sys-
tem but not of the universe. Copernicus didn’t know what
to make of the stars. He said they were faraway points of
light of an unknown nature. It was impossible for him to
know that they were much like our Sun, only unthinkably
farther away. Today we know that the Sun is only one of bil-
lions of stars in our galaxy. We’re not even in the center of
that galaxy, but way out in one arm, out in the suburbs.
And not only that, we now know that our galaxy is only one
of billions, maybe trillions of galaxies. So, in a couple of
thousand years, we’ve moved from being right smack in the
center of the universe to living on a rather insignificant
piece of real estate.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the question. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 6: In this lecture, the professor

describes two ways to look at the universe: the Ptolemaic
system and the Copernican system. Decide if the following
are characteristics of the Ptolemaic system or the
Copernican system.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a marketing class.

Professor:

All right, then, next topic. I want to talk a bit

about attitude, consumer attitude and how it affects con-
sumer behavior. Before we get ahead of ourselves, though,
we should define attitude. Attitude is an opinion, or evalua-
tion, of a person, an issue, or—and this is how we’ll gener-
ally use it—of a product. And anything that you have an
attitude towards, that’s called an object.

Okay, then, one fairly traditional approach to viewing

attitude is called the ABC model. In this model, attitude is
made up of three parts, three components. The A compo-
nent, that’s the affective component, the, shall we say, emo-
tional part of the formula. It reflects the consumer’s
feelings towards the object. If you look at a product, if you

38 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 38

consider a product, how does it make you feel? Does the
idea of owning this product give you a warm, happy, glow-
ing feeling or a cold, negative feeling? If you buy it for Aunt
Sally, will she be pleased?

The B component is the behavioral component. This is

. . . it’s not just actual behavior . . . it’s both actual behavior
and potential behavior . . . . It’s . . . it’s how you might act
and how you do act. For us in marketing, this basically
means, do you want to buy something and if you do, do
you actually buy it? That’s the B in the ABC model.

The C component, now that’s the cognitive component.

That’s the consumer’s knowledge, intellectual knowledge,
ideas, and thoughts about the object. Where does this
information come from? How do consumers get knowledge
about a product? Well, there are lots of sources. There are
consumer magazines that compare products. There’s word
of mouth . . . your brother-in-law Bob just bought a new
digital camera and he tells you how great it is. But of
course, these days, most people get product information
from advertising, advertising on television, on the radio, in
newspapers and magazines . . . on the Internet . . . advertis-
ing is everywhere!

So, in marketing, what you are trying to do, obviously, is

to influence consumer attitude towards a product. You can
do that in an affective way—you can appeal to consumers’
emotions—or you can do it in a cognitive way, you can
sway consumers’ opinion by appealing to their good sense,
or you can use a combination of A and C, but what you
want to do, bottom line, is to affect behavior. You want con-
sumers to buy your products.

Now, according to the social psychologist Daniel Katz—

he did this classic study on attitude in 1960—attitudes are
functional. In other words, we have an attitude towards
something because it serves some purpose. Katz identified
a number of attitude functions. Two of these are especially
useful for marketers to understand. The first one is called
the value-expressive function. This has to do with how peo-
ple think about you—or rather, your perception of how peo-
ple think about you. You might not really be able to afford a
sleek little sports car, or expensive designer shoes from
Italy, or a big flat-screen TV, but perhaps you buy these
products anyway. Why? Because you believe that the peo-
ple you come in contact with will think you look really styl-
ish in those shoes, or they’ll think you must be rich if you
own that TV, or that you’re cool if you drive around in that
sports car. Conversely, the value-expression function can
work the opposite way. You might not buy a perfectly good
product because, well, you think it will make you seem . . .
what, unsophisticated, unpopular, out of touch, boring.

The second function to consider is the ego-defensive

function. These products appeal to your desire to be safe,
to minimize threats. You are responding to this function
when you buy car insurance, homeowners’ insurance,
health insurance . . . Also if you buy an alarm system for
your house or car . . . if you, if you buy deodorant, you are
responding to this function. Again, this function can also
cause you not to buy a product. You don’t buy it because
you think it is dangerous. This could be why you don’t buy
cigarettes, why you don’t buy a car that is known to be
unsafe, to roll over. Again, you’re responding to this ego-
defensive function.

Okay, coming up in our next class, we’ll look at some

examples of real advertisements and see how they change
attitudes and influence behavior. And don’t forget to finish
reading Chapter 7 before then.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 7: The lecturer describes the ABC

approach to viewing consumer attitudes. Decide if the fol-
lowing are more closely related to the A component, the B
component, or the C component of the ABC approach.

Narrator:

Question 8: In this lecture, the professor

describes the Katz system of attitude functions. Decide
which of the following characteristics is related to which
function.

[CD 6 Track 3]

Listening Review Test

Listen as the directions are read to you.
Narrator:

This section tests your understanding of conver-

sations and lectures. You will hear each conversation or lec-
ture only once. Your answers should be based on what is
stated or implied in the conversations and lectures. You are
allowed to take notes as you listen, and you can use these
notes to help you answer the questions. In some questions,
you will see a headphones icon. This icon tells you that you
will hear, but not read, part of the lecture again. Then you
will answer a question about the part of the lecture that
you heard. Some questions have special directions that are
highlighted. During an actual test, you will not be allowed
to skip questions and come back to them later, so try to
answer every question that you hear on this test. There are
two conversations and four lectures. Most questions are
separated by a ten-second pause.

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between a student and a

professor.

Student:

Hi, Professor Calhoun. May I come in?

Professor:

Oh, hi, Scott, sure. What’s up?

Student:

Oh, well, I’ve decided, uh, I’m going to drop your

biochemistry class.

Professor:

Oh? Well, we’ll just have to see about that! Why

ever would you want to do such a thing?

Student:

Well, you know, on the last test . . .

Professor:

Oh, I know, you blew that last unit test! But you

still have a . . . hang on a second, let me take a look on my
computer . . . Well, you had a B+ average on your first two
unit tests, so, you still have a C average . . .

Student:

Well, I talked it over with my advisor, Doctor

Delaney, and he said, since I’m taking five classes this
semester, he thought it would be a good idea if I dropped
this one and concentrated on my four other classes . . .

Professor:

Did he now. Well, with all due respect to Doctor

Delaney, I couldn’t agree with him less. You’ve already put a
lot of work into this class, you’re not doing that badly, and
. . . well, I’m just not of the opinion that you should drop it.
Tell me, what’s your major, Scott?

Student:

Pre-medicine. But . . .

Professor:

There you are! You’ve got to have a good grade in

biochemistry if you’re majoring in pre-med, and if you
want to be a doctor, you need to know this stuff!

Student:

I know, and I know I have to take biochem at some

point. It’s just that . . . well, for the first few weeks of this
class, I felt like I pretty much understood what you were
talking about. It was hard, yeah, but I was keeping up. Then
we got to that unit on atomic structure, molecular struc-
ture, and . . .

Professor:

You’re right, that’s . . . there are some difficult

concepts in that unit. But . . . here’s the good news! That’s
as hard as it gets! It’s all downhill from there!

Section 2 Guide to Listening 39

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 39

Student:

Well, my math skills are, um, a little weak, and . . .

well, I never realized how much math you need to do
biochemistry . . .

Professor:

Of course you should have realized that. Trying

to understand science without understanding math . . . it’s
like trying to study music without being able to read notes.

Student:

Right. So . . . here’s what I’m thinking. I drop bio-

chemistry now, take a couple of math courses, and then I’ll
retake your class in a year or so . . .

Professor:

Listen, Scott, I think all you really need is a little

help. Do you know my teaching assistant, Peter Kim? No?
Well, he does some tutoring. I think if you spent an hour or
two a week working with Peter, he could get you over the
rough patches. We still have four more unit tests and a final
exam, so there are plenty of opportunities for you to get
your grades up.

Student:

Well, I . . . the thing is . . . today is the last day I can

drop a class and not get a grade . . . I just worry that . . . if I
don’t do well . . .

Professor:

Stop thinking those negative thoughts, Scott!

You’re going to get a little help and you’re going to do
just fine!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 1: What course does Scott want to drop?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation.

Professor:

Did he now? Well, with all due respect to Doctor

Narrator:

Question 2: What does Professor Calhoun mean

when she says this?

Professor:

. . . with all due respect to Doctor Delaney, I

couldn’t agree with him less.

Narrator:

Question 3: What does Professor Calhoun say

about her class?

Narrator:

Question 4: What does Professor Calhoun suggest

that Scott do?

Narrator:

Question 5: Which of the following best describes

Professor Calhoun’s attitude towards Scott?

Narrator:

Listen to a conversation between two students.

Student A:

Hi, Martha. What brings you up to the library?

Student B:

Oh, I’ve just been using the Encyclopedia of Art,

looking up some terms for my art history class. What about
you, Stanley?

Student A:

Well, I’ve got these two papers due at the end of

this term, and I, uh, I’ve been trying to get an early start on
them by collecting some references and getting some data.

Student B:

Really? For the end of the term? Wow, you really

like to get a jump on things, don’t you!

Student A:

Yeah, well, I just know how crazy things get at

the last moment. Matter of fact, I’ve spent most of the
day here.

Student B:

Well, you oughta be ready for a break then.

Wanna go get some coffee and grab something to eat?

Student A:

Sure, that, uh, that sounds pretty good. I could

use some caffeine, actually. Let me just get my stuff
together and . . . hey, where are my notes?

Student B:

What notes?

Student A:

The notes I spent all day working on—I thought

they were in my backpack.

Student B:

You mean you lost your notebook?

Student A:

No, uh, I don’t use a notebook—I take notes on

index cards. That’s really the best way to . . .

Student B:

Okay, well, just think about where you could’ve

left them, Stanley. Focus. Retrace your steps in your mind
since you came in the library.

Student A:

Uhhh, let’s see. I think I came in here, first, to the

reference room, and I was using one of those computers
over against the other wall there . . . but I don’t think I
made any notes when I was down here. After that . . . let’s
see, I, uh, think I went up to the stacks . . .

Student B:

Stacks? What do you mean, the stacks?

Student A:

You know, the, uh, book stacks . . . that’s what

they call the main part of the library, where most of the
books are shelved.

Student B:

Okay, well, maybe your cards are up there, then.

Student A:

I don’t think so. No. After that, I was in the peri-

odicals room up on the third floor. I was sitting in a cubicle
up there, looking at some journals, some psychology jour-
nals, and . . . well, I definitely remember I was taking notes
then . . .

Student B:

And you haven’t had them since then?

Student A:

No, no, I don’t think so. Let me run up to the

periodicals room and check. I’ll bet they’re still in that
cubicle. When I get back, we can go down to the snack bar
in the basement and get some coffee.

Student B:

Are you kidding? They have some of the worst

coffee on campus—maybe in the world—down there. It
tastes like mud! Let’s walk over to Williams Street and find
some decent coffee.

Student A:

All right, wherever. I’ll be right back.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 6: Why did Martha come to the library?

Narrator:

Question 7: What did Stanley misplace?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the conversation:

Student A:

Well, I’ve got these two papers due at the end of

this term, and I, uh, I’ve been trying to get an early start on
them by collecting some references and getting data.

Student B:

Really? For the end of the term? Wow, you really

like to get a jump on things, don’t you!

Narrator:

Question 8: What does Martha mean when she

says this?

Student B:

Wow, you really like to get a jump on things,

don’t you!

Narrator:

Question 9: According to Stanley, what does the

term “stacks” refer to?

Narrator:

Question 10: Where will Stanley go next?

Narrator:

Listen to part of a lecture in an elementary edu-

cation class.

Professor:

Okay, in the time we have left today, I wanna talk

about the article I asked you to read over the weekend, the
one, um, about writing and reading skills. First we’ll talk
about writing skills, then, uh, later, if we have time, we’ll
talk about reading too.

One point I want to make before we begin . . . when we

talk about stages of writing development, these stages are
not associated with grade levels. A child doesn’t necessarily
enter the first stage in, ummm, say, kindergarten. Children
develop these skills at their own pace, in their own way.
But, a little encouragement from parents and teachers
helps children move through these stages faster.

Well, as you remember, the article first talked about

“writing readiness.” This is behavior that . . . well, these are
ways that children tell us they’re almost ready to start writ-

40 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 40

ing. There are several signs of this. One early sign is making
random marks on the page, sometimes accompanied by
drawings. To the child, these marks and drawings may rep-
resent a story or a message. Another sign is mock handwrit-
ing. Mock handwriting. Some children create lines of wavy
scribbles, pages and pages of them, sometimes. These look
like cursive writing, and children may move their hands
from left to right, the way they’ve seen adults do. The scrib-
bles consist of lots of loopy o’s, often, and dashes and, and
dots and squiggles. Some kids produce symbols that look
more like printing, but with invented letters, marks that
look like letters but aren’t, really. Another sign of writing
readiness—the author doesn’t mention it, but I remember
my own kids did this when they were preschoolers—they
ask adults to help them write something by guiding their
hands. Oh, and I wanted to mention that one thing you
want to do at this stage is to build children’s fine motor
skills, build up their finger muscles. One good way to do
this is to have children use scissors and play with modeling
clay—this builds up those muscles.

So, the system that the author uses to describe the

stages of learning to write, it’s not the only one you’ll
encounter. Many experts divide the process into more
stages, and they use different names for the stages. The sys-
tem used in this article, though . . . it’s pretty clear, don’t
you think, and it’s pretty easy to understand for both teach-
ers and parents.

In this system, the first stage is the symbolic stage. In

this stage, children string together pretty much random let-
ters and numbers that they happen to be familiar with.
Let’s say a child wants to write this sentence. I’ll put it on
the board.

MY SISTER LIKES TO RIDE HER BIKE.

A child in the symbolic stage may try to write this sen-

tence by writing a series of random letters or numbers. The
child may write oh, “PZOL2TX,” for example. Children at
this stage, they’ve figured out that letters are symbols for
sounds, they just haven’t figured out which letters go with
which sound. Writing in this stage is, uh, intelligible only to
the writer. It doesn’t mean anything to anyone else. It could
mean “pizza,” it could mean “Big Bird.” Sometimes it
doesn’t even make sense to the writers. Sometimes, kids
write something like this and then ask an adult, “What did
I write?”

The next stage of writing is called the phonemic stage.

Children in this stage are beginning to understand letter-
sound relationships, so they write the most distinct sounds,
the dominant sounds they hear in a word, usually the first
consonant sound, and sometimes the final consonant
sound in a word. A child in the phonemic stage might write
our sentence this way:

MSSRLKRDRBK

After this comes the transitional stage. Children at this

stage of writing record every speech sound they hear when
they sound out words to themselves. They’re often able to
distinguish where one word ends and another begins.
Children may also use words that are familiar to them from
their own reading. I’ll put an example of this on the board.

MI STER LIK TO RID HIR BIK

Of course, children who are learning to write English . . .

well, they learn basic phonics rules, basic word-attack
skills, and they tend to think that those rules work all the
time. In fact, they only work about 65% of the time in
English. It’s easier for kids to learn to write in say, Finnish,

or Spanish, which are more or less phonetic languages. The
relationship between written symbols and sounds is closer
in those languages. Of course, it’s much harder in lan-
guages like Chinese, where there is virtually no relationship
between written symbols and sounds.

Okay, the fourth stage is called the conventional stage.

In this stage, children apply their knowledge of vocabulary,
spelling, grammar . . . the basic rules of writing. Children in
this stage sometimes make mistakes, but in general their
writing is effective and correct. Let me write that on the
board and you’ll see . . .

MY SISTRE LIKE TO RIDE HER BIKE.

A couple of points I want to make about the teaching of

writing skills, and I’ll have to make them quickly—one is,
communication should be the main focus for writing. If
children can express what they’re thinking through their
writing, then the writing activity is a success. Another
point: writing activities should be fun. Most young kids love
to write, and the best way to keep them interested in writ-
ing over the years is to make writing enjoyable.

Well, obviously I’m not going to have enough time in

this class to discuss what the article says about reading
skills, so I’m going to save that for our next meeting. I want
to give that discussion the time it deserves. Any comments
before we stop for the day?

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 11: Which of the following activities are

signs of “writing readiness” in children?

Narrator:

Question 12: What does the speaker imply about

the system mentioned in the article that the students read,
which was used to describe the development of writing
skills?

Narrator:

Question 13: The speaker mentions four stages in

the development of writing skills. Put these stages in the
correct order, beginning with the earliest stage.

Narrator:

Question 14: Why does the speaker mention

Spanish and Finnish?

Narrator:

Question 15: Which of the following is the best

example of writing done by a child in the transitional stage?

Narrator:

Question 16: Which of these statements about

writing assignments for young children would the profes-
sor probably agree with?

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in an astronomy class.

Professor:

Did you know that, when you look up into the

night sky, a lot of the stars you see are actually not single
stars? To the naked eye, they look like one star, but they’re
actually double stars.

So, what are double stars? Well, first you should realize

that there are two types of double stars. One is called an
optical pair, or a line-of-sight double. These are two stars
that just seem to be close together when we look at them
from Earth. They might really be thousands of light years
away from each other. The other type is a true double star,
a binary-star system. These consist of two or more stars
that are in each other’s gravity fields. They, uh, in other
words, they orbit each other. Sir William Herschell, in 1803,
was the first to discover that some stars were really double
stars, and he coined the term “binary star.”

There are a lot of double stars out there. A surprising

number. Most astronomers think about a quarter of all
stars are binary stars, and some astronomers estimate as
many as 75% of all stars will turn out to be binary stars.
Well, I say binary, but actually, probably 10% of all multiple-
star systems have more than two stars. Some have three

Section 2 Guide to Listening 41

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 41

stars—ternary stars, they’re called—and some have four,
five, even more.

Some astronomers think that binary stars are more

likely to have planets than single-star systems. I’ve always
wondered what it would be like to live on a planet in a solar
system around one of these stars. Maybe you’d have two
suns in the sky at the same time. Maybe you’d have a sun-
set and a sunrise at the same time. Imagine that! Or maybe
one of the stars would always be in the sky, and there
would never be any night on your planet. Aliens from a
double-star system who visited Earth would probably find
our skies . . . pretty boring.

One of the nice things about double stars is that many

are visible with just binoculars or a small telescope. They’re
among the most interesting objects that an amateur can
look at—and . . . uh, I think they’re also among the prettiest
sights in the night sky. Some binaries, though, are impossi-
ble to see as double stars unless you have a powerful tele-
scope. This is either because the two stars are really close
together or because one star is much brighter than its com-
panion. By the way, when you have one star brighter than
the other, that star’s called the primary, and the dimmer
one is called the comes, which means “companion” in
Latin.

One of the most famous of all double-star systems is

made up of the stars Mizar and Alcor. It’s the second-to-
the-last star in the handle of the Big Dipper, the one at the
bend of the handle. If you get away from city lights, both
stars are clearly visible through binoculars, or even with the
naked eye. In fact, in ancient times, it was a test of excellent
vision to be able to see both stars.

As it turns out, though, Mizar-Alcor is not a true binary-

star system at all. It’s one of those optical pairs I was talking
about. The two stars are quite far apart and don’t orbit each
other. However, much to astronomers’ surprise, when they
looked at Mizar-Alcor with a spectroscopic telescope, they
discovered that in fact, it was a “double-double” star sys-
tem. In other words, both Mizar and Alcor, they’re . . . uh,
actually both binary stars.

One type of binary star is called an eclipsing binary. The

star Algol is one of those—don’t confuse Algol with the star
Alcor in the Big Dipper that we already discussed. Anyway,
Algol is usually a fairly bright star, but for a few hours every
three days it dims to one-third its normal brightness. That’s
because the dimmer secondary star—the comes—moves
between the brighter primary star and the Earth.

One of the reasons I like double stars is because I like to

check out the colors. I said before that binary stars are
pretty sights. They are particularly pretty, I think, when the
pair of stars are of contrasting colors. You often get this
when the two stars are of different ages. Think of two jewels
of different colors lying on a piece of black velvet! That’s
what they look like to me. There’s a double star named
Albireo. One of the stars in this system is gold and the other
blue, at least to my eyes. Other people have told me that, to
them, the stars appear yellow and green, or even white and
purple. Next week, when we visit the observatory again,
you’ll have a chance to look at Albireo for yourself, and you
can let me know what colors you see.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 17: What is the main purpose of this

lecture?

Narrator:

Question 18: According to most astronomers,

about what percentage of all stars are double stars?

Narrator:

Question 19: According to the speaker, what does

the term comes mean in astronomy?

Narrator:

Question 20: How many stars make up

Mizar-Alcor?

Narrator:

Question 21: How does the speaker describe dou-

ble stars of contrasting colors?

Narrator:

Question 22: The speaker mentions a number of

different double-star systems. Match these systems with
their descriptions.

Narrator:

Listen to a lecture in a marketing class.

Professor:

Okay, next we’re going to talk about a process

that’s important to all marketing managers—it’s called
product portfolio analysis. First off, what do we mean by a
product portfolio? Well, a product portfolio is the combina-
tion of all the products that a firm sells when considered in
terms of their performance. It’s a little like, well, like an
investment portfolio. You know, investors want a balanced
group of stocks: some stocks that are safe but always pro-
ductive, some that are high-risk but have the chance of
making lots of money quickly. So, the marketing manager
wants this same kind of balance—some good old standbys,
some products that show promise, and some products that
may still be under development but have a good payoff
potential.

There are a couple of methods used to analyze product

portfolios. One’s the General Electric/Shell method.
Another is the BCG method, which we’ll be looking at
today. This system was devised by the Boston Consulting
Group—that’s why it’s called the BCG method. It’s also
called the Boston Box or, uh, sometimes the Growth-Share
Matrix. This method uses a grid, a box divided into four
quadrants. Each quadrant has a rather . . . well, picturesque
name: Star, Cash Cow, Problem Child, and Dog.

Okay, to get this into perspective, let’s imagine we all

work in the marketing department of a big corporation. We
want to analyze our product portfolio. Our first step is to
identify the various SBUs—those are Strategic Business
Units. You can define an SBU as a unit of a company that
has its own separate mission, its own . . . goals, if you will.
An SBU can be a division of a company, a line of products,
even an individual brand—it all depends on how the com-
pany is organized. So, now, we can classify our SBUs
according to this grid.

Let’s say we have four SBUs. SBU #1 makes digital cell

phones. The market for this product is hot and SBU #1 has
a nice share of this market. SBU #1’s product is a star. Then
let’s say that SBU #2 makes chicken soup. There’s no growth
in the chicken soup market right now, but SBU #2’s good
old chicken soup is a steady performer. It provides a
dependable flow of “milk” for our company, so this SBU is a
cash cow. Okay, then let’s say there is a growing demand for
a new kind of athletic shoe, and SBU #3 makes this kind of
shoe. Unfortunately, SBU #3’s shoes aren’t selling all that
well. This SBU is called a problem child. Finally, let’s say
SBU #4 makes shaving cream, and there’s no growth in that
area. SBU #4’s shaving cream is not exactly a hot product
anyway; it has only a small fraction of the shaving cream
market. So SBU #4, it’s what’s called a dog.

Now, once we’ve classified our SBUs, is the portfolio

analysis over? No, it’s just starting. We have to decide what
to do with this information—whether to commit more of
the company’s resources into marketing a product, or less,
or the same as before. A few years ago, the Australian mar-
keting expert Langfield-Smith identified four basic strate-
gies that companies can adopt to deal with SBUs. We can

42 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 42

build by aggressively trying to increase market share . . .
even if it means lower short-term profits. We’d use this
strategy to try to turn a cash cow into a star. We can hold,
preserving our market share. This strategy tries to ensure
that cash cows remain cash cows. We can harvest. This
means that we reduce the amount of investment in an
SBU. Why? To maximize short-term profits. This may actu-
ally turn stars into cash cows. The last strategy is to divest.
In other words, the company sells off or kills off dogs, and
possibly some problem children.

Of course, all companies want to market stars—who

wouldn’t? But stars are vulnerable—all competing compa-
nies are trying to knock our telephone out of its role as a
star and replace it with their own. How do we maintain our
product’s star status? More advertising? Lower prices? New
features? And what do we do to move our athletic shoes
from problem child position to star position? How much
are we willing to spend to make that happen?

And what about cash cows? Not all SBUs can become

stars—but cash cows have value too. Chicken soup may not
be an exciting, high-growth market, but it does provide us
with a stream of cash. Maybe we can use the cash flow
from our cow to finance the development of stars.

Then there are dogs. Now, some marketing experts think

a company should get rid of dogs and concentrate on proj-
ects that are more profitable. In my opinion, though, dogs
may have a place in a portfolio. Products with low share of
low-growth markets may appeal to customers who, uh, buy
just because of price—bargain-hunters, in other words.
And dogs don’t cost a company much. There’s little or no
money spent on advertising dogs or on improving the
product. Our SBU #4 can simply place its shaving cream on
the shelves of retail stores.

Well, when we meet again—Monday, I guess—I’m going

to give you the product portfolios of some real companies.
We’ll break into small groups and classify SBUs according
to the system we talked about today, and make recommen-
dations about how company resources should be spent to
market these products.

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 23: Which of the following is NOT

one of the terms for the method the speaker uses for classi-
fying SBUs?

Narrator:

Question 24: How does the speaker classify the

SBU that makes athletic shoes?

Narrator:

Question 25: Why is the term cash cow used to

describe some SBUs?

Narrator:

Question 26: Which of these classification

changes would probably most please the marketing man-
ager of the firm that owns this SBU?

Narrator:

Question 27: In this lecture, the professor

describes the marketing strategies of Langfield- Smith.
Indicate whether each of the following is a strategy that
Smith lists.

Narrator:

Question 28: What is the speaker’s opinion of

SBUs known as “dogs” ?

Narrator:

Listen to a discussion in a marine biology class.

Professor:

Good afternoon. In today’s lecture, we’ll be talk-

ing about a, umm, a truly remarkable creature, the hump-
back whale. The humpback, as you may know, is not the
largest member of the whale family. That distinction
belongs to the blue whale, which is, in fact, the largest ani-

mal on earth. But humpbacks do have an amazing talent.
Anyone know what that is?

Student A:

Are they the ones that, uh, sing?

Professor:

That’s right, they’re the opera singers of the ani-

mal kingdom. People first became aware of this in the late
sixties, in 1968, when a marine biologist by the name of
Roger Payne lowered a microphone into the ocean. He
really didn’t know what to expect. It turns out, the ocean is
a very noisy place. He heard all kinds of sounds, sounds
from dolphins, from other types of whales, but . . . the
weirdest, most complex songs of all came from humpback
whales. Hang on a minute . . . okay, um, listen to this: . . .
Isn’t that haunting, mournful music?

Student B:

Professor, how do they do that? How do they

make those noises?

Professor:

Good question, because, well, we know that

whales don’t have vocal cords. We know that no air escapes
during their songs. We know that their mouths don’t move
when they sing. But we still aren’t exactly sure how they
produce the sounds.

Humpbacks actually have two kinds of calls. One is a

low-frequency sound, a sound with a relatively simple
structure with just a few variations. These low-pitched
sounds can be heard from . . . well, at least a few hundred
kilometers away, and quite possibly, from much farther
than that. These calls probably carry very little information.
They probably just mean, “Hey! There’s a humpbacked
whale here!” It’s the other kind of call, the high-frequency
sounds that have a lot of variation, that seem to contain a
lot of information. These are meant for whales in the . . .
well, whales that are right in the neighborhood. This type of
call is what we generally think of when we think of hump-
backs’ songs.

The most basic unit of humpback music is a single

sound, or element. That might be a low moan, a chirp, a
roaring sound, a trill, a grunt, a whistle, a shriek. These ele-
ments are arranged into simple repeating patterns called
phrases, which generally consist of three or four elements.
Phrases are repeated several times. A collection of phases
are . . . they’re called a theme. The singer moves from one
theme to the next without even pausing. There can be up to
seven or eight themes in a song, and they’re always sung in
exactly the same order. The songs last from ten to twenty
minutes. After singing the last theme, the whale surfaces
for a breath and then he—it’s generally the young males
who sing—then he starts all over again. Sometimes they’ll
do this for up to ten hours at a time!

Student B:

So they sing all the time?

Professor:

No, you see, whales migrate thousands of miles

each year. During the summer they migrate to their cold-
water feeding grounds. During their winter breeding sea-
son, they travel to the warm waters around Hawaii, in the
Caribbean, off the coast of Mexico. They only sing during
their four-month breeding season, and then they sing more
at night than during the day. The other eight months of the
year, when they’re migrating or in their feeding grounds . . .
they’re practically silent then.

Members of the same group of whales always sing the

same song. Atlantic whales have one song, northern Pacific
whales another, and southern Pacific whales still another.
But what’s surprising is that these songs evolve from year to
year. Isn’t that incredible! After eight months of traveling
and feeding, the whales return to the warm waters where
they mate, and they’re all singing a new song. The new
song has echoes of the previous year’s song, some of the

Section 2 Guide to Listening 43

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 43

themes are the same, but each year there are also com-
pletely new themes. And each whale in the group sings the
new song the same way. Within about eight years, the
whales create a totally new song. None of the themes are
the same as they were eight years previously.

Student A:

I’d like to know what these songs mean. Or do

they mean anything?

Professor:

Well, you’re not the only one who would like to

know that! Some researchers think the males are singing to
attract females. Some think they are singing to warn off
other males that get too close.

Student A:

Since the humpbacks change their songs every

year, well, maybe they’re singing about what they’ve done
that year, about where they’ve been, what they’ve seen. Do
you think that’s possible?

Professor:

You mean, that their songs are some form of oral

history? Well . . . frankly, your guess is as good as anyone
else’s!

Narrator:

Now get ready to answer the questions. You may

use your notes to help you.

Narrator:

Question 29: What is not known about the songs

of the humpback whale?

Narrator:

Question 30: In this lecture, the speaker describes

two types of calls made by the humpback whale. Indicate
whether each of the following is a characteristic of the low-
frequency call or of the high-frequency call.

Narrator:

Question 31: The speaker analyzes the music of

the humpback whale by breaking it down into its compo-
nent parts. Arrange this list of the parts of the humpback’s
music, beginning with the simplest and shortest part and
moving to the longest and most complex.

Narrator:

Question 32: How long does a humpback whale

take to sing a complete song?

Narrator:

Question 33: When do humpback whales sing

the most?

Narrator:

Listen again to part of the lecture.

Student A:

Since the humpbacks change their songs every

year, well, maybe they’re singing about what they’ve done
that year, about where they’ve been, what they’ve seen. Do
you think that’s possible?

Professor:

You mean, that their songs are some form of oral

history? Well . . . frankly, your guess is as good as anyone
else’s.

Narrator:

Question 34: What does the professor mean when

she says this?

Professor:

Well . . . frankly, your guess is as good as anyone

else’s!

Narrator:

This is the end of the Listening Review Test.

[CD 7 Track 2]

Note-taking Exercise 1

Narrator:

Directions: Listen to a list of words and phrases.

Write down your own abbreviations of these words in the
spaces below. This vocabulary comes from a lecture on
business organizations that you will be listening to in order
to improve your note-taking skills. When you have finished,
compare your notes with those of a classmate. Check for
similarities and differences in what you wrote. You can also
compare your notes with those in the Answer Key.

Listening Tutorial: Note Taking

1. business organizations

11. distinct legal entities

2. sole proprietorship

12. artificial persons

3. partnership

13. stockholders

4. corporation

14. profit

5. limited liability company

15. investments

6. advantage

16. double taxation

7. corporate tax

17. executive

8. sole agent

18. board of directors

9. responsibility

19. popular

10. legal documents

20. hybrid

[CD 7 Track 3]

Note-taking Exercise 3

Narrator:

Directions: Listen to the following sentences. Take

notes on these sentences using abbreviations and symbols
and omitting unimportant words. These sentences come
from a lecture on business organizations that you will be
listening to in order to improve your note-taking skills.
When you have finished taking notes, compare your notes
with those of a classmate. Check for similarities and differ-
ences in what you wrote. You can also compare your notes
with the sample notes in the Answer Key.

1. Today we’re going to talk about the most common forms

of business structures, of, uh, business organizations.

2. So first, let’s, um, discuss the sole proprietorship, the sole

proprietorship . . . did you know it’s the most common
form of business organization? Also the simplest.

3. Basically, there’s not much difference between a sole pro-

prietorship and a partnership except that a partnership is
owned by more than one person.

4. In some partnerships, there are silent partners, partners

who invest money in the company but have nothing to do
with management decisions.

5. Corporations are . . . this is an important concept . . . dis-

tinct legal entities. They’re even called “artificial persons.”

6. Most shareholders don’t bother to attend, and often give

their votes . . . uh . . . assign their votes to the top corpo-
rate officers. This is called voting by proxy.

7. The day-to-day operations of the corporation are per-

formed by the executive officers, and by the corporate
bureaucracy.

8. By the way, the CEO is often the chairman of the board as

well as being the top executive officer.

9. An LLC, as it’s called, it’s a . . . a hybrid organization, it

combines some of the best features of a partnership and
those of a corporation.

[CD 7 Track 4]

Note-taking Exercise 5

Narrator:

Directions: Listen to a lecture on business organi-

zations. The lecture will be given in short sections. Take
notes on each section. After each section, answer the ques-
tions Yes or No to find out if you are taking notes on the
important points in the lecture. (The more Yes answers you
have, the more complete your notes are.) When you have
finished taking notes, compare your notes with those of a
classmate. Check for similarities and differences in what
you wrote. You can also compare your notes with the sam-
ple notes in the Answer Key.

Narrator:

Section 1

Professor:

Today we’re going to talk about the most com-

mon forms of business structures, of, uh, business organi-

44 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 44

zations. When I used to give this lecture, oh, just a few years
ago, really, I would have said the, uh, the three most com-
mon forms of businesses: the sole proprietorship, the part-
nership, and the corporation. Now, though, you . . . uh . . .
you really need to add limited liability company to that list.
It’s . . . it’s a new animal, a new way to structure a business
that’s becoming more and more popular.

Narrator:

Section 2

Professor:

So first, let’s, um, discuss the sole proprietorship,

the sole proprietorship . . . did you know it’s the most com-
mon form of business organization? Also the simplest. As
the term sole proprietorship implies, there’s one owner, and
he or she is the boss, period. There may be many employ-
ees, but only one boss. You may be wondering, how does
someone start up a sole proprietorship? Well, the econo-
mist Paul Samuelson, in his textbook, he gives the example
of a person who wakes up one morning and says, “I think
I’ll start making toothpaste in my basement.” Samuelson
says a sole proprietorship begins with that moment of deci-
sion. One advantage of this form of organization is that
there is no separate tax on the sole proprietorship, and
that’s a huge advantage. A sole proprietorship is taxed at
personal income rates and those . . . those are generally
lower than the, uh, the corporate tax rate. Now, the main
disadvantage of a sole proprietorship is that the owner is
legally liable for all the company’s debts. If, say, a company
gets sued, or, uh, can’t pay back a loan, then the owner is
liable. The people suing the company can come after the
owner’s personal assets, like his or her house or car.

Narrator:

Section 3

Professor:

Now, another type of business organization is

the partnership. Basically, there’s not much difference
between a sole proprietorship and a partnership except
that a partnership is owned by more than one person. The
tax advantage of operating as a partnership is the same as
you’d get as a sole proprietorship.

How about liability? Each partner has the right to act as

the sole agent for the partnership. How does this work? Say
one partner signs a contract to buy, oh, 500 widgets from
company A. He tells his partner what a great deal he got on
the widgets, and she says, “Oh no! I just signed a contract
to buy 500 widgets from Company B!” Are those contracts
legally binding? You bet, because both partners can act as
sole agents. So . . . in a partnership, one partner is liable not
only for his own actions, but also for the actions of all the
other partners.

Who’s in charge in a partnership? In most partnerships,

partners share responsibility for day-to-day operations. In
some partnerships, there are silent partners, partners who
invest money in the company but have nothing to do with
management decisions.

Narrator:

Section 4

Professor:

Okay, then, that brings us to the corporation.

This is the most complex form of business organization,
also the most expensive to set up. You need to fill out legal
documents called articles of incorporation and pay a fee,
and it can be . . . well, pretty expensive. Still, almost all large
business are organized as corporations.

The most important thing about a corporation is the

owners—they’re called stockholders—share in the com-
pany’s profits, but their liability is limited to what they
invest. See the advantage? If a corporation goes broke,
then, sure, stockholders lose their investment, the money
they invested in the company’s stock—but not their per-
sonal property, not their cars or houses.

Now, unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, cor-

porations have to pay taxes, taxes on their profits. Not only
that, but stockholders, they have to pay taxes on dividends,
on the money that corporations pay them. This is . . . uh . . .
it’s really double taxation, and it’s one of the disadvantages
of organizing your business as a corporation.

Let’s, uh, talk about the structure of corporations. There

are three important elements. The owners—that is, the
shareholders, have ultimate control. There are regular
meetings of shareholders, usually once a year, and they
vote on important issues. But, in reality, you usually get
only the biggest shareholders at these meetings. Most
shareholders don’t bother to attend, and often give their
votes, uh, assign their votes to the top corporate officers.
This is called voting by proxy. Okay, now, corporations also
have a board of directors. This board—oh, and I should
mention this, the board is elected by the shareholders—it’s
responsible for making major decisions. The board
appoints the chief executive officer . . . and it, uh, sets pol-
icy. However, the day-to-day operations of the corporation
are performed by the executive officers and by the corpo-
rate bureaucracy. By the way, the CEO is often the chair-
man of the board as well as being the top executive officer.

Narrator:

Section 5

Professor:

Now, remember I said that today there are four

important forms of business organization. An increasingly
popular form of organization for smaller businesses is the
limited liability company. An LLC, as it’s called, it’s a . . . a
hybrid organization, it combines some of the best features
of a partnership and those of a corporation. It eliminates
that double taxation I mentioned. But, uh, I’m afraid I’ll
have to wait till our next meeting to talk about the LLC
because we’re out of time today . . .

[CD 7 Track 5]

Note-taking Exercise 6

Narrator:

Directions: Listen again to the lecture on business

organizations and take notes. After you have listened to the
lecture, use your notes to answer the True/False questions
and the fill-in-the-blank questions at the end of the lecture.
Sample lecture notes appear in the Answer Key.

Professor:

Today we’re going to talk about the most com-

mon forms of business structures, of, uh, business organi-
zations. When I used to give this lecture, oh, just a few years
ago, really, I would have said the, uh, the three most com-
mon forms of businesses: the sole proprietorship, the part-
nership, and the corporation. Now, though, you, uh, you
really need to add limited liability company to that list.
It’s . . . it’s a new animal, a new way to structure a business
that’s becoming more and more popular.

So first, let’s, um, discuss the sole proprietorship, the

sole proprietorship . . . did you know it’s the most common
form of business organization? Also the simplest. As the
term sole proprietorship implies, there’s one owner, and he
or she is the boss, period. There may be many employees,
but only one boss. You may be wondering, how does some-
one start up a sole proprietorship? Well, the economist Paul

Section 2 Guide to Listening 45

UDIO

CRIPT

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 45

Samuelson, in his textbook, he gives the example of a per-
son who wakes up one morning and says, “I think I’ll start
making toothpaste in my basement.” Samuelson says a sole
proprietorship begins with that moment of decision. One
advantage of this form of organization is that there is no
separate tax on the sole proprietorship, and that’s a huge
advantage. A sole proprietorship is taxed at personal
income rates and those . . . those are generally lower than
the, uh, the corporate tax rate. Now, the main disadvantage
of a sole proprietorship is that the owner is legally liable for
all the company’s debts. If, say, a company gets sued, or,
uh, can’t pay back a loan, then the owner is liable. The peo-
ple suing the company can come after the owner’s personal
assets, like his or her house or car.

Now, another type of business organization is the part-

nership. Basically, there’s not much difference between a
sole proprietorship and a partnership except that a part-
nership is owned by more than one person. The tax advan-
tage of operating as a partnership is the same as you’d get
as a sole proprietorship.

How about liability? Each partner has the right to act as

Who’s in charge in a partnership? In most partnerships,

partners share responsibility for day-to-day operations. In
some partnerships, there are silent partners, partners who
invest money in the company but have nothing to do with
management decisions.

Okay, then, that brings us to the corporation. This is the

most complex form of business organization, also the most
expensive to set up. You need to fill out legal documents
called articles of incorporation and pay a fee, and it can be
. . . well, pretty expensive. Still, almost all large business are
organized as corporations.

The most important thing about a corporation is the

concept of limited liability. Corporations are . . . this is an
important concept . . . distinct legal entities. They’re even
called “artificial persons.” What’s that mean? Well, a corpo-
ration can open a bank account, own property, get sued, all
under its own name, just like a person, an individual. The
owners—they’re called stockholders—share in the com-
pany’s profits, but their liability is limited to what they
invest. See the advantage? If a corporation goes broke,
then, sure, stockholders lose their investment, the money
they invested in the company’s stock—but not their per-
sonal property, not their cars or houses.

Now, unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, cor-

porations have to pay taxes, taxes on their profits. Not only
that, but stockholders, they have to pay taxes on dividends,
on the money that corporations pay them. This is, uh, it’s
really double taxation, and it’s one of the disadvantages of
organizing your business as a corporation.

Let’s, uh, talk about the structure of corporations. There

are three important elements. The owners, that is, the
shareholders, have ultimate control. There are regular
meetings of shareholders, usually once a year, and they
vote on important issues. But, in reality, you usually get
only the biggest shareholders at these meetings. Most
shareholders don’t bother to attend, and often give their

votes . . . uh . . . assign their votes to the top corporate offi-
cers. This is called voting by proxy. Okay, now, corporations
also have a board of directors. This board—oh, and I should
mention this, the board is elected by the shareholders—it’s
responsible for making major decisions. The board
appoints the chief executive officer . . . and it, uh, sets pol-
icy. However, the day-to-day operations of the corporation
are performed by the executive officers and by the corpo-
rate bureaucracy. By the way, the CEO is often the chair-
man of the board as well as being the top executive officer.

Now, remember I said that today there are four impor-

tant forms of business organization. An increasingly popu-
lar form of organization for smaller businesses is the
limited liability company. An LLC, as it’s called, it’s a . . . a
hybrid organization, it combines some of the best features
of a partnership and those of a corporation. It eliminates
that double taxation I mentioned. But, uh, I’m afraid I’ll
have to wait till our next meeting to talk about the LLC
because we’re out of time today . . .

Narrator:

This is the end of the Guide to Listening.

[CD 7 Track 6]

Section 3: Guide to Speaking

The Independent Speaking Task

Sample Responses for Independent Speaking

Narrator:

Sample Response 1

Speaker:

When I was young, I used to play rugby. I was a

member of the . . . of our national team . . . the junior team
from my republic in the Soviet Union. My team, uh, we
became the junior champions of rugby of the Soviet Union.
It was the most important and happiest time in my life. I
. . . it was most important event in my life because I made
my first big steps in rugby. Also, because at that time I was
only fourteen years and it was . . . well, you could say the
biggest success in my life. I was happy and I was proud of
my success . . . of our team success. These events will . . .
uh, always be a pleasure to remember in my life as the best
time I ever had. Even the success I have had in science and
business cannot compare to this moment.

Narrator:

Sample Response 2

Speaker:

For me the most important day in my love, in my

life was a day when I . . . um . . . got accepted to Simmons
College. Um . . . um . . . I got accepted to the . . . um . . .
teaching program and it was very exciting . . . um . . . dur-
ing the symposium important for me because it took
almost two years for me . . . um . . . to get accepted to the
program and during this two years I had to take the tests
and I had challenges because I had to take the tests two
times . . . um . . . because of various reasons . . . um . . . so
. . . um having seen that I got this . . . um . . . test (posital)
(?) and I got accepted it was worthwhile and on top of that
. . . ah . . . during this two years I worked hard on getting a
job and I was eligible enough to be offered the job and the
great thing also for financial reason is . . . um . . . to be eligi-
ble for . . . um . . . scholarship, which was a rare scholarship
offered to . . . ah (foreigner?). So it was . . . um . . . all over
. . . um . . . a great day for me.

Narrator:

Sample Response 3

Speaker:

The most important day in my life . . . um . . . I

think . . . um . . . the day I . . . I got married to my wife. Um

46 Section 2 Guide to Listening

TOEFL_ASAK_001-140.qxp 4/21/06 1:16 PM Page 46

Wyszukiwarka

Podobne podstrony:

więcej podobnych podstron